[0:08] Charles County government presents the Board of Commissioners meeting.

[0:17] Greetings. The April 29, 2025 Charles County Board of Commissioners meeting is now called to order. Today's session will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance.

[0:32] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic, which stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

[0:46] Thank you commissioners.

[0:47] Members, commissioners, the first item on your agenda this morning is to start with a roll call.

[0:51] Commissioner Bowling.

[0:52] President.

[0:52] Commissioner Coates.

[0:54] Is absent?

[0:55] Commissioner Stewart.

[0:56] Here.

[0:57] Commissioner Patterson.

[0:58] Is absent?

[0:59] Commissioner Collins.

[1:01] Here.

[1:01] Thank you, commissioners.

[1:02] We do have a quorum.

[1:04] The next item on your agenda is Commissioner Comments.

[1:13] Commissioners, if there's no comments, we'll move on to your next item, which is approval

[1:20] of a minutes.

[1:22] commissioners will need a motion to approve the April 8th, 2025 Board of

[1:27] Commissioner Minutes. So moved. Second.

[1:30] Moved and properly. Second.

[1:32] Doll and favor. Opposed? The eyes have it.

[1:36] Thank you commissioners. Commissioners the next item is just an announcement that your

[1:40] next scheduled sessions will be held on May 6th and May 7th, 2025. We now move to

[1:47] your approval items. We do not have any budget amendments or budget transfers today.

[1:53] So the next item on your agenda for approval is the FY 2026 annual transportation priority

[2:00] letter to the Maryland Department of Transportation.

[2:09] Good morning, commissioners. Thank you for having us today. My name is Joel Bingfley. I'm a planning

[2:13] supervisor in preservation and long range planning. And with me, I have my colleague, Marcus

[2:18] Taram, a planner, one of my long range planning as well. Thank you, Marcus. And we're here today

[2:22] to present the annual MDOT transportation priority letter.

[2:26] In years past, you might remember that this is presented a little earlier in the spring.

[2:29] We're pretty busy this year and luckily MDOT gave us a little bit of additional time until the middle of May to have this fully approved and sent to them.

[2:37] So that is why you're seeing us here at the end of April.

[2:39] So I'll turn it over to my colleague, Mr. Tariyama, to give you the presentation.

[2:43] Yes, and if you could go to the next slide real quick, perfect.

[2:46] And yeah, just to go and go off with Mr. Bankley, it said basically once we go through this process,

[2:52] and then hopefully it will be approved by the commissioners, then like we and staff will

[2:57] go and take initiative to submit it to MDOT and then MDOT will have it with our records

[3:02] and it can be found on the MDOT website for the public when it is posted.

[3:07] So for the next slide, if you can go to the next slide please.

[3:12] So as most years, our top translation priority is still the SMRT for those who don't know

[3:22] So SMRT is a fixed route, high capacity transit service within the US 301 Maryland 5 corridor.

[3:30] It's going to provide transportation between Charles County and

[3:34] brand-jabney metro and print Georgia County with a terminus in white plains.

[3:40] This is going to be a huge opportunity for economic development as well as congestion relief within this corridor.

[3:46] And it would expand our tax base by $5 billion to $6 billion.

[3:52] So, that remains our county's transportation letter priority and it can be highlighted at

[3:57] the early portions of the letter.

[3:59] Next slide, please.

[4:03] All right.

[4:05] Next up, this slide, we're going to discuss the other transportation priorities that we

[4:09] have.

[4:09] A lot of this falls within the US-301 traffic and pedestrian safety improvements.

[4:15] Also, Hughesville is highlighted for improvements, has been in previous years.

[4:21] Here in the italics at the bottom though we have letter time road bike and pedestrian improvements

[4:25] and I wanted to go and take a moment to go and highlight that specifically.

[4:29] This is both new in one sense but it's also a continuation of something that we've been

[4:35] that has been in previous priority letters and we wanted to specifically highlight it in

[4:40] the transportation letter this year and we'll go briefly into it in the next slide.

[4:46] I'm

[4:51] sorry, I think, thank you.

[4:53] So just a quick summary of it.

[4:57] Essentially, Leonard Town Road has been highlighted

[4:59] in previous studies by the county

[5:03] as being part of the high injury network

[5:05] specifically in our local roadway safety plan.

[5:08] It's been highlighted as challenging,

[5:10] but and connect Waldorf specifically

[5:13] was highlighted as a good candidate

[5:15] for implementing complete streets principles.

[5:17] I also wanted to highlight

[5:18] that Maryland Department of Transportation has also updated and tried to expand upon its

[5:23] complete streets concepts within their own policy. So, one or ten row being a state highway

[5:31] would be a good opportunity to try to go and see some of these complete streets policies

[5:36] implemented on this road. And we'll be seeking assistance from state and federal funding sources

[5:41] is to go and put some bi-competition improvements within the coming years.

[5:49] So does that expand towards like all of 228 or is it like it's limited to the Lennard

[5:58] Town Road?

[5:59] So we are specifically for this time and for this specific portion we're focusing mostly

[6:05] on the area from US 301 Crane Highway all the way down to St. Charles Parkway.

[6:10] Okay, that's the area in the scope of them which we're studying right now for this particular project.

[6:15] Thank you. We were approached by the folks from Senator Ellis's office to help facilitate additional pedestrian connections along business route five, especially two and from Thomas Stone High School.

[6:26] So responding to that request for additional infrastructure, we are working with M. Todd some grant funding partners to try to study improvements to that quarter.

[6:40] There we go.

[6:41] So continuing on, more SHA project planning priorities, I think, yes, thank you.

[6:49] So we want to also continue to, this is just building off of the previous stuff that

[6:57] we had done in previous priority letters, mostly improvements to the state highway corridors,

[7:02] improvements to traffic flow on M-D-5, 2-31-quarter improvements, Maryland 2-27 intersection improvements,

[7:12] and surpass the TDM analysis for US-3-1 between Smallwood and Maryland 2-27.

[7:17] So just a variety of highway projects that we have prioritized within the county over the previous years.

[7:25] Next slide, please.

[7:29] Continuing on, other highways that we see for improvements, Maryland 488, Reducation Road

[7:36] Side Path, Maryland 6 Charles Street Prudetion Safety Improvements and Community Enhancements

[7:41] to 10 Indian Head Highway Streetscape Projects, and Maryland 6 Liverpool Point Road to Maryland

[7:47] 224.

[7:48] Manjum Boyd, and we actually wanted to highlight quickly too, Indian Head has gotten back

[7:52] to us with they have made some progress towards getting an idea of what they would like to

[7:59] go and get implemented into the streets gate project through and they would hopefully want

[8:03] to go and seek funding through that between I think it was fund 79 and fund 88. I think

[8:09] the numbers correct 88. So they have made progress on that and they're hoping to seek assistance

[8:16] from MDOT in implementing those improvements into the corridor up to 10.

[8:23] Next slide, please.

[8:27] In terms of MTA priorities, much of this is still the same.

[8:31] I wanted to highlight we had changed some of the language regarding commuter bus enhancements.

[8:36] As issues with the federal government have changed, and community patterns have changed once

[8:40] again, there has been more demand on the commuter bus system, so we are hoping that MDOT

[8:47] That will continue to provide commuter buses and hopefully expand upon the commuter bus service within Charles County.

[8:54] And then also the restoration for Womata route 19 or an effective alternative service.

[9:02] That language has stayed most of the same but we did add some language that regionally speaking there has been conversations about expanding bus service opportunities across the region specifically through the DMV moves and better bus initiatives by Womata.

[9:16] So we wanted to just highlight that the conversation was going on region-wide within the letter just providing brief language that that is currently going on

[9:25] Next slide, please

[9:28] And this is just kind of expanding on what exactly the W19 service was it was

[9:40] It was a it was a bus service that provided a service between the town of Indian head and so then I have a new metro rail station

[9:47] It was eliminated in 2017 due to service reductions by Walmata, and we are requesting that funds would restore that service or in the equivalent service within future years.

[10:08] So in here, we also, one of our priorities is the Indian Rail Trail Extension.

[10:13] The Indian Railroad extension essentially would go and connect any head rail trail with

[10:18] a three-notch trail in St. Mary's County or will, like, very small piece of it in the

[10:23] Charles County, like, very much at the edge of St. Mary's in Charles County.

[10:29] It would enhance the bike and pedestrian connectivity, weaving in a lot of existing bicycle pedestrian

[10:35] past within parts of Waldorf, White Plains, and the eastern portions of Charles County

[10:42] and sort of weave them together into one network. This would expand the reach of the National Capital

[10:47] Trail System, which is a priority for the COG, and would provide high-quality transportation

[10:53] recreation options to Southern Maryland residents and promote economic development and tourism.

[10:58] And in recent years there has been progress made towards this

[11:03] and we have explored the initial phases of trying to go and expand it with the first phase

[11:11] being connecting it with the existing by convention pass along St. Charles Parkway.

[11:17] Next slide, please.

[11:20] Additional projects that have come from Wolflater, Wolflater would like to go and have improvements

[11:24] to Hawthorne Road specifically to improve visibility, light timing and traffic patterns as

[11:31] as well as put in some crosswalks and acceleration

[11:33] and desaleration lanes.

[11:35] Glen Albany Road, traffic signal improvements,

[11:39] old stage coach road, traffic signal intersection

[11:42] improvements, next slide.

[11:49] Improvements to a laplated road,

[11:52] requesting a hyperbiker trail, a crosswalk

[11:56] to the neighboring pedestrian path to Tillman Lake Park.

[12:00] The requesting a review, sorry, review of safety issues

[12:04] that King's grants entrance and improvements to Rosa Road at Quarry and Highway with interception

[12:10] improvements on a future cross over an existing traffic signal.

[12:16] So, that being said, and the materials have been provided to you, we are seeking a motion

[12:20] to approve so that we can go and take this and submit it to the Maryland Department of Transportation.

[12:28] And that is it, are there any questions?

[12:32] I do have a question, actually, I got a couple emails about Route 6 at Oliver Shop Road and Route 6 at Wheatley Road, some safety concerns for those two intersections.

[12:43] Would we be able to include maybe like a traffic study or a safety study on those two intersections in our traffic plan?

[12:53] I know there has been a large amount of action, so I don't know what the solution is, but maybe the state could look at it and figure out if there's some safety cones or they've talked about a roundabout weekly and round six for a while, but it's with the increase in the people going up and down and development around that area, it's really posing an issue.

[13:12] I'd also like in that same vein because I referenced 228 earlier, just an observation,

[13:23] perhaps this anecdotal, but the volume of traffic seems to be increasingly higher on

[13:33] and there are a lot of factors that probably make that a fact, but the result of that high

[13:44] of volume of traffic, there are more accidents and I guess my first question is, I'm assuming

[13:51] that MTA would be tracking the number of accidents in that area, but I also think it may be worthy

[13:58] of a study to look at the traffic patterns, how individual vehicles are coming in and out

[14:07] of the various developments that are on to 28, because I think that's like a system

[14:14] causing that additional volume, and it makes it quite frankly a lot more difficult for

[14:19] people to navigate through to 28, especially, you know, that traditional time when people

[14:25] or a common home from work.

[14:28] So I was wondering, first off, if there's money available,

[14:31] it's perhaps in the same vein as Commissioner Bowling

[14:34] is suggesting perhaps like a study or something

[14:38] to look at those traffic patterns, because I, because again,

[14:42] I mean, I know perhaps it's anecdotal,

[14:45] but I'm telling you, anyone driving on 228,

[14:48] it's certain times of day, it's, I mean, it's,

[14:51] and it's, people are speeding, because I think part of it

[14:54] could be just the fact that people are doing like 60 plus in an area that's highly

[15:02] In addition, I'm going to add, I guess with a request, but I notice speaking of volume of traffic and I'm hoping that this would include some of the signal studies that you're that you're seem to be going to be conducting. But there would be a left. And billically, it's 301 seemed to be have the volume is, I mean, her vendors, even North Brown, just trying to make a left one to belling slay. It's just the traffic and it's backing up on 301.

[15:29] from 301 just to make that left on Billing City 301 and Billingsley. So that would be northbound.

[15:37] At the CVS and the dash in northbound left, but it's a heavy, heavy volume and I'm getting

[15:45] email correspondence about, you know, hey, what's going on? Well, of course we know what's going on.

[15:50] We know that the traffic volume is picking up, but we knew that when the bridge opened,

[15:54] that some of that traffic would probably divert on to that 301. But also I think it comes up

[15:59] in the GPS as an alternative route to get to, to 10 and, uh, et cetera.

[16:04] But anyway, it seemed to be very, very heavy.

[16:07] So maybe a traffic signal, include that new traffic signal study.

[16:11] Appreciate that.

[16:14] Good morning.

[16:15] I have three things just to follow up with what Commissioner

[16:19] Coast was just saying.

[16:20] It would be interesting if the state would consider extending the left

[16:26] turning lane right there at the light for people coming down coming up

[16:30] 301 making a left on Billingson Road that may help get the turning traffic

[16:37] off at 301. I know that there's guidelines about how long they have to be but at

[16:42] this point in time if they could extend it that would definitely help. The other

[16:47] thing that I want to request and I'll ask Ms. Stevens to send you an email

[16:54] Mr. Girl, but I would, you know, my issue with traffic and lights and everything, just to

[17:04] make sure I'm using the proper language, Mr. Girl, can you tell me what is the proper

[17:09] way that you would call or the half-life at 488 and 5?

[17:16] What's the proper way to describe that type of light?

[17:19] It's a half-signal or also known as a T intersection but given the fact that it has a half-signal

[17:28] I think that's the appropriate terminology.

[17:31] Okay.

[17:32] I would really appreciate it if we could request the state to do a study to look at the feasibility

[17:38] to add a half-signal at 228 in Mill Hill Road.

[17:43] Okay, so I'll have Ms. Deden send you a email about that, but at this point in time, I think

[17:50] based on the amount of traffic, the accidents and the traffic, and then I've gotten considerable

[17:55] number of complaints from residents who live on Mill Hill Road.

[18:00] We really need some help there at that intersection.

[18:05] Okay, and lastly, do you have an update?

[18:07] I know I was so excited when we got approval for my request for the change in the signal

[18:12] at C-28 infestible way. Do we have any updated on timeline? When are they going to make that change with a signal light?

[18:22] Well, quickly for the Record Jason Groth Director of Planning and Growth Management.

[18:27] So, I've heard I think four requests amongst the commissioners. For this, what we will do is we will draft up a summary of those items.

[18:38] will make a quick phone call to the M.District Office to see if all of them need to be in the priority letter

[18:47] or if we can simply have them initiate some of this more immediately.

[18:51] Because what gives in the priority letter generally are longer-term items

[18:57] and these all sound like pretty short-term, like we want more immediate attention.

[19:03] and we'll figure out based on that phone call, whether or not it's something that needs to be sort of a 1-2 punch,

[19:09] whether it needs to be a request now and a request in the letter for a more longer term improvement,

[19:14] because studies and analysis, quick looks, analysis of traffic and accidents, that sort of thing,

[19:20] they can usually do pretty quickly on the fly.

[19:23] But in terms of improvements, a lot of times it does need to be in the letter, or it's helpful at least to be in the letter.

[19:28] So we'll make sure that all of the above get included if they direct us to do so.

[19:32] So at the minimum, right, I would think that based on this conversation you could add language to the letter that state that the commissioners have, you know, concerns about like 228 and they will be looking to look into requesting studies and so forth.

[19:53] So maybe that'll set the stage and help promote or to, for them to determine that a long-term study is needed.

[20:04] So to make sure it's clear that we're looking at short-term fixes, but we recognize that we need a long-term study, so maybe that would help.

[20:13] So we may be able to add a section to the letter that says sort of traffic and safety

[20:19] concerns or current traffic and safety concerns and break the four segments that were mentioned

[20:24] here today.

[20:25] It might have been five.

[20:26] We'll view our notes and make sure we get it right and include that in the letter no

[20:32] matter what.

[20:33] And then but we'll look for more immediate attention from the district office to help us.

[20:38] To answer your question, honestly, I thought the improvement that changed to the light had

[20:42] been done. I haven't gone through there lately. I go through it every day. Okay. And I know when

[20:48] Miss Stevens had reached out to the state at least six months ago, they they they report it to

[20:55] Miss Stevens. Oh no, no, no, no. The light has been changed. And I'm like, I go through the

[21:01] light. We're talking about the exclusive left only. Correct. Getting rid of the permissive stage where

[21:06] people take chances. And just the other day, just the other day, there was another bad accident there.

[21:13] And so I know Ms. Stevens sent out another email last week, so if you can check on that,

[21:20] because truly about six months ago, when Ms. Stevens called, they thought the light had

[21:25] already changed.

[21:26] Okay.

[21:27] But it trust me.

[21:29] And sometimes, I believe for the most part, it's a programming thing.

[21:33] And every once in a while, there are glitches in the computer where things happen, where it goes

[21:38] back to a permissive face. We'll certainly make that call and make sure that it's taking effect.

[21:43] And if it hasn't, we'll make sure that they definitely has not get it taken care of.

[21:48] I mean, you know, I'm not driving the road 24-7 and I go through.

[21:53] All it takes is once to notice it and I go through that intersection multiple times a day.

[21:58] And so I know it hasn't been changed. And like the other day, I just sat there. I mean,

[22:02] I was walking and I stopped and I looked. I was leaving one of the establishments and I'm thinking,

[22:07] what is going on? It was another bad accident. And if they pull the records, you can see between

[22:14] state police and sheriff's office. We have accidents there weekly. Yeah. And it's become a very

[22:21] popular shopping center and they got a lot of retail retailers have decided to move there so they've

[22:26] become even more of a destination. Both of them. We just need to help residents out because not everyone

[22:32] one understands the right away with changing.

[22:37] But then when you're coming on to 28 from 301,

[22:41] when you make a left from 301 and festival ways

[22:44] to the right, and I know it's a new name,

[22:47] but you know for us, it's always festival way.

[22:49] And then when you're making that left

[22:54] into the shopper center where the hamburger places,

[22:59] I forget the name of the hamburger place.

[23:00] Red Robin. Yeah, Red Robin. I'm telling you, it is a huge blind spot. It's very difficult to make

[23:08] that left. If you're not patient, if you're really not paying attention, if it's raining,

[23:14] if it's dark out, well dark, it kind of helps because of the light, but it's very unsafe.

[23:20] Okay. All right. Thank you.

[23:22] That's really noted and there was one other thing, both Commissioner Coates and Commissioner

[23:30] Stewart mentioned, Billingsley at US 301 in the turn lanes there.

[23:34] There are on US 301 specifically, there's at least one turn lane improvement planned by

[23:43] some of the area development.

[23:44] You've probably seen some of the development occurring along 301 in that area and some more

[23:49] is about to occur north of Billingsley Road on 301. Some of those developments are responsible

[23:55] for doubling the turn lane on Southbound 301 to go towards St. Charles to go towards Fairway

[24:02] Village in that area of St. Charles. So that turn lane will be doubled in width. So in other

[24:10] words, be two turn lanes. So traveling Southbound on 301 and to make the left toward the

[24:17] while let's say on Billingsley. So Southbound 301 left on Billingsley to head towards St. Charles Parkway.

[24:25] That single turn lane, which is pretty long right now, is going to be doubled.

[24:29] In the northbound direction, that's what I need to check on, the status of that one.

[24:35] As impacts occur to an intersection like that, we give flexibility in our development code where the developments have to mitigate for their impacts.

[24:43] But let's say one development, let's say the worst movement is the one I just mentioned but there's still some pretty bad ones in other areas.

[24:52] The next development in that area who's also causing an impact, we give flexibility in our code where they can make improvements to the other side.

[25:00] So the northbound left to go on Billingsley towards St. Patrick's Drive.

[25:06] So, that could also be in the works, I have to double check on that one.

[25:16] And then, finally, in that same intersection, we have a development that's going to make

[25:21] a turn lane improvement from Billingsley heading towards 301.

[25:27] That left turn lane will also be doubled to go northbound up towards, say, the mall on 301.

[25:34] So from Billingsley coming from Middletown Road to make the left one north down three on that one

[25:39] I know for a fact has a development project that's making an improvement there at that location as well

[25:44] So lots going on at that particular intersection and development is paying for it very good

[25:49] I have kudos for you your staff and and we like those kudos you turn it Billingsley and St. Patrick's

[25:58] Thank you very much, have not had any sort of any tragic accidents there since you put that

[26:04] turnling. The other one is Turkey Hill and 301. Very good. Have not heard of the

[26:09] captivity since you put that traffic light in. And thank you for responding to Thornton Elementary

[26:18] School, the principal or Mr. Heim in relation to a traffic light there, because I have been getting

[26:24] and pound it, by the way.

[26:25] The people who want to get that approval will be saved, right?

[26:28] And I tell them it's coming, we don't put schools and make it unsafe, so anyway, but I just

[26:31] want to give you kudos.

[26:32] Thank you.

[26:33] Absolutely.

[26:33] We appreciate that.

[26:35] And thank you to you guys.

[26:37] Thanks.

[26:45] We'd be making a motion to include the additions that were discussed by this.

[26:51] Yes.

[26:51] As proposed.

[26:52] Yes.

[26:53] So is there a motion to approve the transportation priority letter?

[26:59] with the additions as described so moved and properly second any further

[27:06] discussion all in favor opposed the eyes have it thank you commissioners thank

[27:14] you thank you commissioners commissioners so next item under approval for the

[27:20] resolution for the Nike property land donation is I'm going to be rescheduled so

[27:26] So that moves us now into your morning briefings and the morning briefing for this morning is the FY 2026 budget work session review of the FY 2026 operating revenue estimates and first review of proposed FY 2026 general fund and highlights of county agency funding.

[27:49] Good morning commissioners. Jake Dyer acting director of fiscal managed brave services.

[27:55] So may I have the Chiriyako Chief of Budget, Danny Baum, and Assistant Chief of Budget?

[28:00] So good morning, commissioners.

[28:01] Today is the first day we present the FY2026 proposed budget on the general fund.

[28:08] Today's, it took us a lot of work to get here.

[28:12] This process started in the October time period where staff makes recommendations.

[28:17] We received agency and budget requests throughout the process.

[28:21] We've had some trials and tribulations with this budget, especially considering the challenges that we faced that was not really in our control.

[28:29] We faced some challenges this year with the state budget where they put some cough shifts to the county.

[28:34] At one point the cough shift was going to be a really high number and then they dwindled it down.

[28:39] In addition, we've also seen some pressures with the federal government with the challenges they're doing at the federal level, which is creating challenges here.

[28:47] So we've had some challenges throughout this process, so it took us a little longer than usual to get here

[28:52] So we wanted to wait those challenges out so we can come to the commissioners with a good sound proposed budget

[28:58] And I will tell you

[29:01] This I've been doing this budget process for 22 years now

[29:05] And I would say this budget process was some challenge, but it was nowhere near as challenging as it was in the 2008 to 2013

[29:12] that was a much different issue where we had revenue problems.

[29:18] And our revenues are growing, so we were able to meet the challenges a little differently.

[29:22] But since I would say 2013, 2013 was the last year that the commissioners had raised property taxes.

[29:28] And at the same time, they also adjusted the income tax.

[29:30] Since then, we've been very, very fortunate because we've never had to adjust those rates to meet our budget.

[29:37] So this year is a little different.

[29:38] We had some challenges, we to help with us with those challenges, we actually did a lot

[29:44] of community outreach, we did a community survey, when we flat out asked the community

[29:49] to solve these growing expenditures, how would you like us to solve this problem?

[29:54] We received some good sound feedback that will review in part as presentation on how the

[29:59] Can you hear me?

[30:00] We like us to meet our budget challenges, and I feel as though we have accomplished that in this proposed budget to the commissioners. So we're going to go over the revenues with the commissioners, and today we're also going to review a high level expenditure in what's driving the expenses to the general fund. My suggestion here is, if you see any questions you might want to ask related to expenditures, please hold them until we actually get to that agency or department summary page.

[30:27] So today we have a lot of agencies here, so I want to make sure our time's efficient.

[30:32] So if you see any questions on when we review them related to the Board of Education,

[30:36] please wait until we actually go over the Board of Education page.

[30:39] And if you see something for emergency services or recreation parks and tourism,

[30:42] we're going to go over those budgets to the commissioners tomorrow.

[30:44] Tomorrow we have another work session with the commissioners.

[30:47] But today we're going to go over a revenue overview.

[30:49] So if you see any questions on the rev, you have a question about the revenue,

[30:51] please ask any questions about the community survey that we're going to present to the commissioners,

[30:56] please ask.

[30:56] But when we get to the expenditure, please hold in the interest of time because I want to make sure there's a lot of we have the school board here

[31:02] We have the college we have doctor Abney. I want to make sure they're times efficient here and we can get them out the doors as efficient as possible.

[31:10] So with that commissioners, I want to go over what we have in the proposed budget. So if Carol can put up page one of our document.

[31:18] The proposed budget that we're presenting to the County Commission for their consideration is a budget of $594,290, $3,300.

[31:28] As promised, the budget is imbalanced.

[31:31] A couple weeks ago, you might recall what we were based on our revenue forecast and the total request that we presented to the commissioners.

[31:38] We were out of balance about $66 million.

[31:40] We were able to get that in balance with use of fund balance as well as looking at our revenues.

[31:46] to see there's any changes to them as well as a proposed increase that we're going to present to the commissioners.

[31:51] In addition, we always looked at our expenditures to see if there's a way to cut them a little bit.

[31:57] So as continued since 2013, the proposed budget does not include any property tax or income tax rate increases.

[32:06] Those are the taxes that pretty much impact the entire county.

[32:10] So I'm here to say and I'm proud to say that since 2013 we haven't asked the commissioners to raise those taxes.

[32:17] But this year's budget we are suggesting or proposing for the Commissioner's situation is to adjust our

[32:23] recordation tax rate from $5 per 500 to $7 per 500, and we'll explain why and get into more details on that when we go over page three.

[32:32] The next page on page two really shows the commissioners how the budget is in balance.

[32:38] It shows revenue sources as well as expenditure sources.

[32:41] We'll get into the lot of the meat of this and to our future pages.

[32:46] But in total, our operating revenues are growing by 7%.

[32:51] Most of that is in property taxes and income taxes.

[32:55] And we do have a, we're showing additional 4.3 million in revenue growth in our

[33:00] recreation tax by adjusting that fee from $5 to $7 per 500.

[33:04] We also made some various other adjustments to the budget to get us to a 7% increase.

[33:09] In addition, we are using, we're requesting use of 21 million of our reserve fund balance.

[33:15] So in total, our revenues are growing 5.9%.

[33:19] Our expenses are grown by 5.9% and we have that outlined accordingly.

[33:25] We're proposing an additional 11 million to the school system, 8.4 million for the sheriff's office.

[33:31] We did have to, we are growing debt service by 419,000.

[33:37] That debt service is not just county government debt service.

[33:40] That's that service that the county pays on behalf of school projects or any type of project that the school system manages.

[33:45] That comes in our budget.

[33:46] That doesn't go to the school system budget.

[33:48] Same thing with college of Southern Maryland.

[33:50] The county administered budget is grown by 6.2 million.

[33:53] We have college of Southern Maryland grown by $751,700.

[33:57] dollars. What's new this year is that that call shift that the state is doing related to the

[34:02] teacher retirement for the board of education as well as college of so amount. That's new to us,

[34:06] and that created some pressures. That budget is $2,786,500. So these are call shifts that the state

[34:12] government chose to have Charles County pay. And that's not just the Charles County thing,

[34:17] that impacted every single county. We also were growing the library by $290,000. We were growing the

[34:23] Health Department budget by 92,000.

[34:25] We have other government growing and in other things.

[34:28] So in total, the expenses is growing by just under $33 million.

[34:35] The next-based commission on page three really gets into the meat of our expenditures, of our revenues.

[34:41] So once again, I will say for the third time, we are not asking the commissioners to consider property taxes or income taxes.

[34:50] Our revenues for property taxes are grown by 6.1% and

[34:53] And as explains a couple of weeks ago, that's really growth to the property assessments for residential area related to Waldorf.

[35:00] The residential growth is outpacing commercial growth.

[35:03] Commercial revenue is already declining, and this recap why those commercial revenue is declining.

[35:09] It's really changed as the state did a couple of general families ago on how they evaluate property.

[35:15] They created a, in 2022, they pretty much said if your personal property is valued at 20,000 or less, you don't have to file taxes for your personal property.

[35:27] It used to be 2,500, so that hurts some revenue stream from the county.

[35:31] In addition, they changed the way they do depreciation.

[35:34] They used to say you would value depreciation at 25% of the original cost, and now it's down to 10%.

[35:41] So that also created declining commercial revenues with the county.

[35:47] I went back to 2020 to see what the numbers look like.

[35:50] Our commercial businesses have grown since then, but our taxes revenue is receiving is about flat.

[35:58] So we're seeing, we do have additional businesses here, but because of those changes, the state may, we're just not seeing that revenue growth.

[36:05] But we do have some really good things to look forward to when it comes to commercial tax revenues.

[36:10] One of them being you might recall last fall, there was a groundbreaking of very points on very road which should bring significant commercial growth to the county.

[36:22] We also are economic development and is putting a lot of emphasis and growth into what's going on the Indian head base.

[36:29] The federal government is doing a lot of improvements inside the base with the idea of if there was going to be,

[36:35] that will trickle down to improvements outside the base, which is the emergency economic development is working towards.

[36:41] And so far, we also have other areas that are county is growing, but those are two things that we should be hopeful for

[36:47] into the future that will allow our commercial taxes to start growing.

[36:51] Because we really need our commercial business taxes to start out growing the threshold on this area.

[36:57] Because that really reduces the emphasis on our residents.

[37:01] Additionally, we are selling a $15.5 million increase to our income tax.

[37:08] And that's really due to growth that we're seeing, as I explained a couple weeks ago,

[37:12] our withholding growth was greater than 2023 by 6.3%.

[37:17] And our revenue income tax rate is outspacing the average for the state.

[37:21] So that's really something to be proud of.

[37:22] So we're growing on a branch of national side, we're seeing more income taxes.

[37:26] And this is really the first year we're able to really recognize that.

[37:29] So we did increase that budget by 15.5.

[37:33] This proposed budget is requesting that the commissioners consider raising the recordation tax rate to $7 per 500.

[37:41] This, it is $5 per 500, that fee is remained in place, it's been the same since 1991.

[37:48] So it's been $5 per 500 since 1991, so this would be, it's several years in it's, we haven't adjusted it.

[37:56] So what will happen is it will generate $4.3 million to the general fund, and that would be essentially used to support Charles County Plutters schools.

[38:05] They have a bunch of requests of $11.2 million, and we really need to use that $4.3 million to support them.

[38:10] They have a new elementary school notes open up.

[38:13] That has a price tag between $5 and $6 million.

[38:16] So we need that $4.3 money to get to terms down so the new Thord Elementary School can be operated correctly.

[38:21] This is operating costs. This is your teachers, the heat light and power and so forth.

[38:27] And also we want to point out that the resident survey that we ask, because we flat out ask the residents,

[38:32] we have this new elementary school, then we need to open up. How would you like us to pay for it?

[38:37] And they overwhelmingly said, 40% of them say we would suggest that you raise a tax that's only impacts a specialized area.

[38:46] And that's what this recreation tax is doing, because this recreation tax is only impacting people

[38:51] that make real estate transactions.

[38:53] So this is impacting possibly new people that can move into the county.

[38:57] So this doesn't even impact the current residents.

[38:59] The current residents who stay in their home, do not need a refinance, they won't see a tax increase.

[39:05] This is only impacting people that need to make real estate transactions or do anything related to their mortgage.

[39:11] In addition, we are suggesting about $700,000 will be used to support affordable housing initiatives.

[39:18] As affordable housing is a commissioner goal and objective, we have several work groups that are working to achieve those type of initiatives.

[39:27] And what's really holding us back to getting those goals and objectives implemented is funding.

[39:33] Because there's a lot of requests coming from developers saying we want to do some sort of affordable housing.

[39:39] But we can't implement those reduced taxes as pilots because able to impact the general taxpayer.

[39:47] that impacts the school system, that impacts the sheriff's office, that impacts county departments.

[39:52] By creating a revenue source, it allows us to achieve growing county government,

[39:58] allowing us to provide the services of the community needs that helps us support the school system,

[40:02] helps us to support the sheriff's office, and it allows us to achieve these affordable housing initiatives.

[40:08] With that, what that does, though, is to do the recreation tax increase, we're going to build

[40:14] That's well public hearing, but there is also, it needs to be changed in the county code.

[40:19] We have to make an amendment to the county code, and this is where I'm going to turn it briefly for about 30 seconds or so for Mr. Adams to explain that process so everyone is on the same page and aware when he's there.

[40:29] So commissioners, the recreation tax is actually part of our code 281 section one, and would require a bill to be introduced with that.

[40:40] So I know we're at preliminary stages, but if the commissioners want that done, the counting terms obviously can have a bill drafted, so when we do approve the budget, what we would suggest is that you have to put it in at that time so that we can get it properly noticed to a public hearing, and then have it be in place a county law so that you could actually impose it on or so that it could be collected starting July 1 of this year.

[41:08] I want to be mindful of Mr. Dyer's charge for the board to essentially shut up until he completes.

[41:16] That was, this is revenues.

[41:17] You're allowed to see here.

[41:18] Yeah.

[41:19] But my question is, how is this distinguished from housing trust fund?

[41:27] So, the idea is, and there's still some, yeah, that's a great question.

[41:32] So, we're still, obviously, at the end of the day, how these revenues are allocated,

[41:37] And it's really up to the Board of County Commissioners.

[41:40] We have a couple work groups and we would bring this work group, this work group will come before the commissioners to implement how that $700,000 could be charged.

[41:50] So that's something that I don't want to take away from the affordable housing work group ability to provide recommendations to the commissioners.

[41:59] And I feel as though at that time that's when that direction can be given to the county.

[42:05] Okay.

[42:06] Commissioner, a mine was only legal procedure, or my input here was just to help you facilitate

[42:12] how to get it done if the board does choose to go in that direction.

[42:16] We want to make sure you're able to get it done correctly and legally.

[42:20] Go ahead.

[42:21] Miss Hall.

[42:22] So I just want to follow up on Commissioner Collins' question, because I think you answered

[42:26] it in a great way, but I would also add that what we're giving the commissioner's maximum

[42:31] flexibility.

[42:32] Correct.

[42:32] Right.

[42:32] So when you set up a trust fund, it comes with rules, policies, not that we don't have those same rules here,

[42:39] but we have, like you said, several committees that are coming before the commissioners that in order to implement some of the things that they would like to see done, they need a revenue source.

[42:50] And so it could be a pilot, it could be a multitude of things and setting aside that revenue in a fund provides commissioners.

[43:01] what I would call maximum flexibility.

[43:04] It gives you more tools to achieve the goal and objective of creating more affordable housing opportunities.

[43:13] We do have a, we are suggesting no change to the transfer tax rate.

[43:18] We also have adjusted our other revenues, which we based on what the state has gave us forecasting for

[43:24] a highway user tax revenues.

[43:26] is we've also declined by about a million dollars

[43:30] or interest income because it was kind of at all time high

[43:33] in fiscal year 2025.

[43:35] Those rates are starting to go down

[43:36] with changes that the federal does.

[43:39] Anytime the federal reserve lowers the interest rate,

[43:42] our interest income goes down with it.

[43:45] In addition, last year was in fiscal year 25,

[43:48] was our last year a subsidy from the cable fund

[43:51] was provided to the general fund, so that's now zero.

[43:54] and additionally we have fund balance of $21 million and that's all per

[43:59] level users of our fund balance policy and I'll summarize a list of that

[44:03] fund balance use of fund balance is like the very last page of this

[44:06] presentation so we won't get to that today and then with that I'm going to take a

[44:11] break drinks of water and turn to Miss Cheriacco to explain the next page good

[44:16] morning commissioners I am on page four of the packet these are global budget

[44:22] assumptions included in the 26th budget. The budget includes the proposed budget,

[44:28] includes salary increases for eligible employees, the impact of the 2025 salary increases,

[44:34] fiscal year 2025, the full year impact of fiscal year 25 new positions that were approved last year,

[44:42] pension adjustments to fully fund pension contributions, adjustments to the health and dental based on

[44:48] participation in rates, funding for the post-employment health program moved to the centralized

[44:55] other post-employment benefits contribution budget, and we don't know how to do that, we don't

[45:00] Definitely embedded equity into the budget. And there's a chart here that kind of shows the makeup of the proposed budget. And one thing I found interesting, because I looked at last year, and the agency funding piece was still in 47% of our budget going to our agencies. That's going to the school board, that's going to college to celebrate, that's going to the library. Last year, that slice of the pie was only 45%. Now it's 47. It's more of ours. So based on this makeup, more of it is going towards our agencies.

[45:28] Page

[45:34] 5, embedding equity into the budget.

[45:36] Embedding equity helps improve outcomes for the entire community.

[45:40] It ensures that impactful decisions are evaluated with multiple perspectives in their mind.

[45:46] Equity analysis questions on the...

[45:50] Okay.

[45:54] Equity ranking by the DEI office was submitted to DFAS.

[45:59] Yes, we are prioritizing our whole of government equity focus, enhancing budget equity training

[46:08] and shared understanding and encouraging resource allocation according to equity impact.

[46:13] I'm going to hand it back to Jake to discuss the results of our budget survey.

[46:19] So Carol, I think you have a document that we presided to you like as a draft, but there

[46:24] There's a much bigger document, it's like 60-some pages, it's called one underscore budget

[46:27] review.

[46:28] Sam would have sent it to you this morning.

[46:30] We also sent it to you yesterday afternoon.

[46:33] I sent it to you right before the meeting, Carol.

[46:36] This morning probably haven't uploaded it, just kidding.

[46:39] It's one underscore budget review, it's the name of the title because we can wait for that

[46:44] because we do have this part which has several pages of our FY26 budget engagement piece

[46:51] and I just want to quickly kind of go over that a little bit.

[46:53] And sorry for the confusion.

[47:08] Sent it this morning?

[47:10] Yes.

[47:12] Yes, right before this meeting.

[47:16] I don't have it.

[47:20] Was it the same one from yesterday?

[47:22] Yes, same, the same diagram from yesterday.

[47:24] Five session.

[47:27] OK.

[47:28] Can you just send it to me very quickly?

[47:30] I believe Jake's going to forward it to you

[47:32] because he was copied on the email.

[47:34] The one from this morning includes the dollar bill graphics, so that's the one we would like to use if possible, okay,

[47:50] so care

[47:51] like it came from Sam at 9 a.m. to you. Okay, let me look at nine and it's on one underscore budget review is the attachment. Can you just forward it again? Because I don't have it.

[48:04] I don't know why it's not in my email.

[48:13] They're all, I just resent it, they've, you've got one for me.

[48:17] Okay.

[48:19] So, commissioners, what we've done in the last year or two, we've always asked the community

[48:25] to engage in our budget.

[48:26] We asked for their opinions on how to solve the budget through the wonderful help of media,

[48:31] including Kayla Hunt and Dory Flesher, who are amazing, by the way, when it comes to these

[48:36] kind of community surveys.

[48:37] They put together some slides from the results of the survey.

[48:42] So we do have a couple documents and so it was Jan Harris, they're all amazing when it comes to this community engagement and keeping me straight when it comes to how our community wants likes the budget.

[48:54] So who participated on page seven is that we had about 1,000 people completed the entire survey, about 1,300 started the survey, about 1,000 completed.

[49:04] We reach out to them via social media, newsletters, public meetings, we also do the Let's Get

[49:10] Fiscal Poghats because I know you guys all watch every time it comes out, especially

[49:15] the key stakeholders behind me, as well as the community events in their news media.

[49:20] We actually had the, with the assistance of the bay net, they actually did our article

[49:24] on it.

[49:25] But as always, our is usually education and crime prevention, another top priority from

[49:31] our community was transportation and roads.

[49:33] The, based on the community engagement, we also noticed that last year, you know, we made

[49:41] a lot of progress.

[49:41] Last year we had 284 people complete the survey this year, we have over 1,000, so that's

[49:46] really great progress.

[49:48] But we also wanted to mention that, you know, majority of our ones who are responding are

[49:54] still our residents that have been here for 20 plus years.

[49:56] So we're still having a top time reaching our newer residents.

[50:00] We are also doing a great job of reaching our home owners as well as our 45 to 64 demographics

[50:08] and we are not doing that great with reaching our younger people.

[50:11] So we are always trying to find a ways to make improvements and media is going to work

[50:17] with me on how to do that and some of that might mean more in person type of conversations

[50:23] at different various community events to find a way to improve because we always want to

[50:28] approved because we want to make sure that we're reaching the entire county when it comes

[50:32] to these surveys and not just basing decisions on a select field.

[50:37] But who did participate?

[50:38] We actually had a lot of key stakeholders that helped us.

[50:42] We had to share this off.

[50:43] We said public schools.

[50:45] In fact, Charles County of those schools actually shared an email to their staff asking them

[50:50] complete the survey just like we asked our county employees to do the staff.

[50:53] So, we were able to do, we're doing a lot of outreach.

[50:58] One thing that we found when it comes to the annual budget, of course,

[51:02] when we ask them to do a hypothetical budget within county government,

[51:07] most of the funds went to emergency services as you expect, because,

[51:09] everyone wants to make sure when someone calls 911, someone their answers and gets there on time.

[51:16] We also noticed that when we did, we asked a question about how to do additional costs

[51:22] due to the state of Maryland budget.

[51:24] We asked them how they would like us to solve that problem.

[51:27] And basically that we've got a strong preference for now

[51:30] to for the support, the elementary school, as well as the support.

[51:35] These additional callship was a overwhelming strong preference

[51:38] to increasing the actions of specialised groups.

[51:40] They did not want us to raise taxes on everybody

[51:42] and they did not want us to cut other areas.

[51:44] They wanted us to focus on generating revenue and special areas.

[51:47] And that's what kind of drove that discussion on conversation

[51:50] and why we selected the recordation tax, because that's really only impacting the select few in county in the county that does a real estate transaction or does a mortgage adjustment.

[52:01] We also noticed with our partner agencies, we did see some feedback that if we had the funding available, the highest of our partner AC who they wanted us to provide the funding to was Charles County Vogue School Sheriff's Office, as well as the whole department which you would expect.

[52:19] That's that's that continues what we expected.

[52:23] Additionally, we also ask a preference if to fully fund these requests, would you support a tax increase?

[52:32] And 40% of the respondents said they would support some sort of tax increase to go towards Charles Point of Schools.

[52:39] 32% said, yeah, we would do a tax increase for the sheriff's office.

[52:44] But 40% of the respondents said no, don't do a tax increase.

[52:47] don't do anything, don't fully fund the request, find a way to make it work.

[52:52] So we got a, you know, one third, one third, one third, but, you know, so we're, that's why, when this proposed budget

[52:58] being provided the different increases, but we didn't fully fund the request.

[53:02] Additionally, we also got some open-ended comments from 38% of the people.

[53:09] One of them, they spoke to, you know, they had strong

[53:12] for the Charles County Public Schools, they really wanted us to find ways to increase funding for a public safety type of initiatives.

[53:20] They were concerned about the infrastructure strain that we're seeing, so we need to work on that.

[53:26] And they also were concerned about, you know, the fiscal, the economic issues going on at the state and federal, which kind of creates some anxiety with this.

[53:37] What page are you on?

[53:38] We're moving on to page 15, and one thing I wanted to say based on the open ended, which

[53:43] really was really important that I think we were going to mention here, was one, there

[53:48] was calls for affordable housing and to support our vulnerable populations.

[53:53] So that's part of the STEM, the conversation why we fell as though by us generating additional

[53:59] revenue for our degradation tax, we would allocate some of those revenues to help support our

[54:04] that type of population.

[54:05] And additionally, we have a strong desire from our community, from more parks, more trails, and more community spaces.

[54:13] So our CIP is going to strive to that, which is why we have the New Sports and Wellness Center at the Sears Building.

[54:21] We have Waldo Park that we're striving for.

[54:23] We have a lot of new initiatives that we're trying to get into create more spaces for our community to enjoy.

[54:29] So, and additionally, so now we're going to move on to page 16, which is really going

[54:36] on to the expense adjustments as we, the FY 2025 adopt the budget was $561.4 million.

[54:44] And I'm going to drive some brief highlights of what's driving the increase and then we'll

[54:48] go over more detail with each agency when we get there.

[54:51] But I wanted to point out that the $11 million, $11.2 million increase to the board education,

[54:57] It will fund the impact of operating the new Thornton Elementary School.

[55:01] It supports blue-climbing invitation.

[55:03] It provides funding for them to do salary increases for their staff.

[55:08] It also exceeds the maintenance of effort funding by $8.8 million.

[55:15] I think I did a quick math that our $11 million is like 40% greater than what the state's given.

[55:21] The state's given them a $7 million increase and our increase proposing is $11.2 million.

[55:25] So we're doing better than with the state and state has definitely have more ability to generate revenues in the county commissioners

[55:30] So we did do a pension call shift of $2.8 million was different from the past of if the commission that was here

[55:38] 15 years ago when the teacher pension costs were occurred

[55:42] Previously that call shift went to the school board so the school board had to pay that bill

[55:46] What's new in the state government? Well how they balance their budget? They were saying they're gonna send that bill to Charles County government

[55:53] So that's why that's not in bedded into the board education increase.

[55:58] It's in bedded into our budget of 2.8 million.

[56:01] So that includes the call shift for the teachers as well as the CSM retirement cost that it's new.

[56:07] That's a new call shift.

[56:10] The sheriff's office includes $8.4 million.

[56:14] We are in our proposed budget,

[56:16] we're creating the ability for their staff that works on Christmas and on Thanksgiving.

[56:20] if you're working that day, if you're a police officer, your correction officer.

[56:24] If you're just a civilian staff that's assisting with call-taking or anything,

[56:29] that we're suggesting that the sheriff's office are providing them how to pay,

[56:32] which is consistent with what county government occurs.

[56:35] And additionally, we're asking the commission to consider providing them with additional premium pay

[56:40] for their emergency services team tech, as well as their emergency response team.

[56:47] So this is your swap, these are the guys that need to go in and help when the bad guy gets really bad

[56:51] These are the specialized shares office employees that really specialize to keep us safe from those bad guys

[56:57] Additionally, the state budget included a 1% coal for our sworn officers

[57:02] So we have achieved that for our county code

[57:04] We're providing funding for replacement equipment as well as a new digital evidence custodian full-time position

[57:11] They actually funded that within their own budget by increasing their turnover

[57:16] And additionally, we also, in the perforage budget, is converting eight part-time slash full-time,

[57:22] reduce our positions the full-time, and that creates them the ability to provide adequate services to our community.

[57:29] Then on debt service, which is increasing by just under $420,000.

[57:33] And those are funds to pay for the principal and interest on existing bonds and leases as well as an issue cost for new bonds.

[57:39] And those bonds support Charles County Public School projects, call for settlement projects, as well as projects for county government.

[57:47] So on page 17, we go over to county and minister departments.

[57:50] The first one is emergency services who are getting just under $2 million.

[57:55] They're getting 10 new positions in the wall of area for EMTs that includes part-time

[58:01] funding to support the billing operations and the foster law reduction unit division.

[58:05] It also includes two new ambulances, but the budget for those is included in the debt service

[58:10] budget.

[58:10] it. Public work facilities are getting a $379,000 increase, and that includes a

[58:16] full year impact of the building service technician position that was

[58:19] approved mid-year this year, and whose increases for additional road

[58:22] maintenance, and also include in the debt service budget, is the cost for two new

[58:26] vehicles for them. Recreation, parks, and tourism, they have a $780,000

[58:32] increase, and that secludes funding for security cameras at the various parks,

[58:35] Funding to reopen the McDonough pool and the Schema Recealing at Thomas Stone pool, the

[58:41] full year impact of eight new positions that were approved in 25 and also funding to

[58:45] cover increases in running stages.

[58:49] Fiscal Administrator Services are getting just over a million dollar increase and includes

[58:54] three new positions.

[58:55] All three of the positions are funded by allocations to other funds.

[58:59] It's a payroll analyst, a senior procurement specialist and accounting technician.

[59:04] Austin Includes are various annual maintenance cost increases, various equipment needs, and other software needs for both the IT divisions, and then support of other county departments.

[59:16] Planning and growth management, they're getting a $1.2 million increase, and the majority of that is going to match the local match for the transit program.

[59:25] It also continues to support the no fair vango program, and in this budget, they have two new positions in support of the rental registry program, and that is the assistant chief of CPIS and the rental licensing program administrator.

[59:39] Both of these positions for this year are supported by fund balance, and that's only until the fee can start being reflected to cover them.

[59:46] community services, they have just under a $200,000 increase and

[59:51] enjoy that as the full year impact of three new positions from FY25.

[59:56] The summer youth program was moved from the commissioners budget to community service.

[1:00:01] And then on a general government, which is getting a $300,000 increase, which includes commissioners, administrative services, county attorney, and chemist resources. This includes a new position for the associate county attorney. Again, to support the rental registry program. And again, this one's also supported by fund balance for this year. Include one time funding of 75,000 to support a new apprenticeship program for the HR department. And funding for community services was moved from some services.

[1:00:28] But then the planning for summer youth program was moved to community services.

[1:00:33] And then the remaining county administered departments as $227,000 increase.

[1:00:38] And that is an additional funding for a strategic plan.

[1:00:41] And for marketing service consultants to support the new website design for economic development.

[1:00:46] As well as maintaining the partnership with the Small Business Development Center.

[1:00:53] All right, we're moving on to page 19 now.

[1:00:55] This is the other general government.

[1:00:57] So the first one is a increase of 2.3 million to support future retiree health care cost.

[1:01:04] Almost $70,000 increase to the election board to support the next election.

[1:01:10] $163,000 increase for the circuit court, which is funding for

[1:01:14] furniture and workstations, and an increase in contract services for annual support of the kiosk machines.

[1:01:21] State's attorney is having an increase of $415,000.

[1:01:25] This is due to an increase in operating costs to support the growing demands of the office and continue support of the body-worn camera program.

[1:01:33] Health and dental retiree is increasing by 432,000 due to the increase in rate and participation.

[1:01:42] Studies are decreasing by 100,000 as studies fluctuate from year-to-year based on need.

[1:01:48] Central Services is increasing almost 900,000 due to a SDAT state cost shift.

[1:01:54] County Sheriff went from 50% to 90%.

[1:01:57] Funding for all the dual fill of several positions within county government.

[1:02:03] And the criminal justice coordinating is increasing by 60,000, which provides operating.

[1:02:08] Funding for the criminal justice coordinating council.

[1:02:12] And there's a $135,000 increase remaining in the other budgets.

[1:02:18] Moving on to page 20, these are changes to other agencies, so the first on the list is College of Southern Maryland.

[1:02:27] They are having an increase of 751,000.

[1:02:30] This supports the college and provides funding and supportive positions related to the mediation center.

[1:02:36] The health department is getting a $92,000 increase which funds their budget request.

[1:02:41] The library is getting a $290,000 increase, which supports their operations and funding for salary increases for library employees.

[1:02:51] Other agencies and miscellaneous decrease by $335,000 most of this was due to one time funding in 2025.

[1:03:00] contingency is increasing by 435,000.

[1:03:04] This is due to the fiscal uncertainty, and we would like to have contingency for

[1:03:10] emergencies and revenue shortfalls that might come in 2026.

[1:03:15] And then Pego is decreasing by 1.6 million in that fluctuates based on the approved CIP.

[1:03:23] So that gives us a total 26 proposed budget of $594,293,000.

[1:03:30] The next couple of pages is really more detailed on what's in the budget.

[1:03:34] So page 21 and page 22 is through 23 and through 23.

[1:03:39] It's really detailed on the revenues.

[1:03:42] The pie graph really shows that about 82% of revenues are isolated with income taxes and proper taxes.

[1:03:47] Again, those revenues are growing based on this normal growth, no tax increases there.

[1:03:51] We're also showing that a $30.4 million budget, about 5% of the budget is generated by

[1:03:57] recreation and transfer taxes, as well as our others.

[1:03:59] Pages 22 through 23, that is really more meat behind what those revenue increases are.

[1:04:07] Then on page 24 is really our amazing dollar bill, which really shows

[1:04:13] how much of where the dollars are being spent between the county.

[1:04:17] So about 44% of the dollar of every dollar goes towards education.

[1:04:21] The sheriff's office is about 23%, county government, just under 18 cents of every dollar

[1:04:30] goes to poor county government.

[1:04:31] That's your roads, that's your community services, that's your aging programs, that's your recreation

[1:04:35] parks and tourism.

[1:04:36] That's a lot of things, but you know, only 18 cents of that dollar goes to support county

[1:04:41] government.

[1:04:42] Most of your of our expenses is going towards the two highest

[1:04:47] priors of our community.

[1:04:49] That's education and public safety, and we're showing that.

[1:04:51] We're showing just about, gosh, $65, $67, $0.68 of every dollar is going to support those areas.

[1:05:01] Page 25 and fourth will kind of show you more detail of what those divisions would look like on their areas.

[1:05:07] We're not going to go over those sections, but I just wanted to point out,

[1:05:10] So if you wanted to see how much is going to certain areas of those programs that's there for you for you to review

[1:05:16] But so now if you would like we can start page 29, which is really why we have a larger audience today

[1:05:23] That's the where we go over the E county agencies funding. So what we're going to do is every page myself

[1:05:29] Sam or Tania are going to review her that page. We're going to step back. We're going to ask that it's a particular agency to step forward or turn on the camera and

[1:05:38] and then from there, they can explain what their request was

[1:05:42] and for the commissioners to consider.

[1:05:44] So the first one we have is the Board of Education.

[1:05:49] As said earlier, our proposed budget is providing them

[1:05:54] with 11 million 241,400.

[1:05:57] That budget, as said earlier, exceeds the maintenance

[1:06:00] of effort requirement by $8.8 million.

[1:06:02] And that budget that we're providing them

[1:06:05] We'll support the operating cost to operate that new elementary school.

[1:06:09] It provides additional costs towards their charter school.

[1:06:12] It covers their increase in health care costs.

[1:06:15] We also should support the increase in the bus contracts as well as provides the extended learning opportunity funding to support their students.

[1:06:24] It additionally, our budget provides them with tools to provide salary increases further employees as part of their collective bargaining negotiations, which are still ongoing.

[1:06:33] going. In addition, we also are supporting them by giving them 238,900 to support the state

[1:06:40] call ship that came to them. There was a state call ship for the non-public school placement

[1:06:46] students that went right to them, so we provided funding in their budget to allow them to

[1:06:50] provide that call shift. As I've mentioned, the funding for the teacher retirement shift

[1:06:56] of 2.7 million dollars would be paid by Charles County. If you actually add that cost in, if

[1:07:02] If it was the old way of doing it, where it would have gone to the school board, their budget

[1:07:06] request would have been 6%, which is on par with what our revenue growth is.

[1:07:11] Additionally, I wanted to point out the state funding is only increasing by $7 million in

[1:07:16] our shares, increasing more than that.

[1:07:18] In addition, our debt service budget includes funding for their capital projects of our debt

[1:07:25] service budget, 9.4 million of that is related to Charles County Public Schools.

[1:07:29] That's not money that you see in the school system budget.

[1:07:32] That's money that's coming out of the debt service budget that comes out of the county government.

[1:07:37] But we did get greater a higher request than we were able to fit in.

[1:07:41] They are requesting it was about $25 million that they requested from the county commissioners to fund their budget.

[1:07:47] Which is about, so basically we were not able to fund $14.1 million of their request.

[1:07:53] So what I will do is I'm going to take a break and we're going to allow

[1:07:57] Dr. Navarro and her staff who come forward to explain what their proposed budget is and for the commission to be aware of it.

[1:08:06] Thank you.

[1:08:41] Okay, there we go.

[1:08:42] I'm Janelle Morley, the chairperson of the Board of Education.

[1:08:46] And I bring you greetings today on behalf of our vice chair, Ms. Nicole Kramer.

[1:08:50] As well as our board members, daughtery Butler Washington, David Hancock,

[1:08:54] the Tanya Smolls, Jamila Smith, Brenda Thomas,

[1:08:57] Samisha Thomas, Linda Warren, and our small Mr. Sam Burke.

[1:09:01] The board of the commission today

[1:09:03] presents its fiscal year,

[1:09:05] 2026 operating budget request of $537.9 million

[1:09:10] for your consideration.

[1:09:12] Our request reflects an increase of 6.3%

[1:09:16] from the current fiscal year

[1:09:17] and includes mandatory operating and staff health costs.

[1:09:21] One time funding associated with the opening of the 23rd Elementary School, which you've

[1:09:26] heard a lot about this morning, Marga Jameson Thornton Elementary, negotiated bus contractor

[1:09:32] wages and bus replacements, teacher pension costs, continuation of the implementation of

[1:09:39] the blue point for Maryland's future, and most importantly, a reserve for collective employee

[1:09:45] bargaining.

[1:09:45] It is imperative that Charles County Public Schools continue to recruit, attract and most

[1:09:52] importantly retain high quality teachers and staff.

[1:09:56] We cannot focus on effective teaching and student learning without supporting the people

[1:10:01] who work hard each day to make that happen.

[1:10:04] The school system continues to navigate workforce shortages as do other Maryland counties and

[1:10:09] school systems across the country.

[1:10:11] So prioritizing those who are committed to children who live in Charles County is a huge

[1:10:16] budget priority.

[1:10:18] The Board of Education appreciates the continuous support of the Charles County commissioners

[1:10:22] and also are promised to deliver excellence in teaching and learning.

[1:10:27] The commitment from our state and local government to adequately fund education is essential to ensure

[1:10:33] all children strive for academic and personal success, excel, achieve and thrive.

[1:10:38] And the board is thankful for your commitment over the years to fund the school system's operating budget by doing so you have supported the mission of Charles County Public Schools to ensure that every child has a high quality education in an environment that is safe and conducive to learning.

[1:10:56] However, as I shared with you publicly during the last budget cycle, education, which includes CCPS, CSM and the libraries has historically accounted for

[1:11:08] We're about 45% of the overall county general fund budget.

[1:11:13] We heard this warning that may be increasing to 47%, but I just want to stress again that

[1:11:18] also includes CSM in the library, so that's not just for CCPS.

[1:11:23] We also continue to see, unfortunately, a percentage decrease and our share of the budget gets

[1:11:29] smaller and smaller, while student enrollment continues to grow.

[1:11:32] right now we are just shy of 29,000 and we're projected to hit 30,000 in the

[1:11:38] very near future. As more families move to Charles County our enrollment

[1:11:42] increases and we must have adequate funding to fully support all children in

[1:11:47] our schools. The population in Charles County as well as the economy and wealth

[1:11:52] continues to expand but please keep in mind the wealth in our county is not

[1:11:57] equally distributed and it many times disproportionately affects our youngest

[1:12:01] citizens. As I've shared previously, approximately 50% of students in CCPS are impacted by poverty,

[1:12:11] and as you are aware that we've also been adversely affected by recent government layoffs,

[1:12:16] so of course that's going to be reflected by how our children are impacted.

[1:12:20] And please keep that in mind as you consider your budget priorities.

[1:12:24] I urge the Board of Charles County commissioners to continue to prioritize education in our public

[1:12:31] schools. Thank you for the opportunity to provide these comments in support of the fiscal year

[1:12:36] 2026 operating budget request. On behalf of the Board of Education, I thank you again for your

[1:12:42] continued support of education, our students, and for considering our funding request.

[1:12:49] Good morning commissioners, Maria Navarro, Superintendent of Schools. I have with me our Chief Financial

[1:12:56] Officer, Karen Acton, who we're all here to answer your questions along with our board chair.

[1:13:01] there. I just want to take a quick moment to thank your staff. They have always worked

[1:13:07] very cooperatively with us as we find solutions. And I think Mr. Dreyer is correct in saying

[1:13:15] they are state pressures on to the local governments that are increasing at a time when in education

[1:13:22] and Maryland in particular is striving to do higher investments in education. And so those

[1:13:29] conversations require that we meet often in our strategic in terms of the work that we bring forward.

[1:13:36] I bring to my board and that Mr. Dreyer brings to you for consideration. We are here to answer

[1:13:43] any questions that you may have. I also want to say that I want to commend the county

[1:13:49] for serving our community and we stand behind any assistance that you need to get surveys and to

[1:13:56] to get engagement opportunities for our community

[1:13:58] to weigh in on what exactly they have.

[1:14:01] The information results from the survey,

[1:14:03] I would love to be able to get a copy of them themselves

[1:14:05] because it has feedback also about the school systems

[1:14:09] and what our community wants from the school systems

[1:14:11] and I think that information will be important for us

[1:14:14] to take as well so that we can also look

[1:14:16] for other areas of improvement

[1:14:18] and to hear what our community really wants.

[1:14:21] So I'll just, if you allow me to,

[1:14:23] I'll just have Ms. Akden go through

[1:14:25] a very quick summary of some other highlights that Mr. Dreyer may not have hit in his overview

[1:14:31] and then we are happy to answer any questions you may have.

[1:14:35] Good morning.

[1:14:37] So as Mr. Dreyer mentioned, our request is $25.3 million and I saw the slide that the

[1:14:45] county's proposing the $11.2 million.

[1:14:48] So why is there such a large increase?

[1:14:53] So our, we have $6.2 million in mandatory costs, we have $3.1 million.

[1:15:00] That we're asking for extended learning opportunities. We have in our Pasoda, our charter school. We have

[1:15:07] additional staffing that they've requested of 471,000. And we have collective bargaining assumptions

[1:15:15] of 13.2 million. Our blueprint implementation costs of 2.5 million. We do have some support

[1:15:24] positions that we're asking for to support our ERP Oracle, which is 518,000, some instructional

[1:15:32] increases of 809,000, and then non-instructional increases of 441. And then, of course, the big

[1:15:40] ask for Thornton to be able to staff it of 6,000,000,000. We included in our proposal, although the number

[1:15:49] seems pretty high and I'm sure it seems shocking. We did reduce staffing by 1.8 million.

[1:15:56] That's already reflected in this budget. We have budgeted salaries at 97%. I mean, 98%. Sorry,

[1:16:04] Jake keeps pushing for 97, but 98 is our number, which is 6.6 million. And we have 4.6 million

[1:16:12] a fund balance already included in this budget.

[1:16:17] So that's kind of the high level.

[1:16:19] If you have any questions for us, we'd be glad to answer them.

[1:16:28] As you all know, this is always a very important time for us.

[1:16:35] I don't think there's been any representations by this board

[1:16:40] that we do not take public education extremely serious.

[1:16:44] In years past, particularly after the establishment of the blueprint, that was a concern that

[1:16:54] I raised to ensure that our budget responsibilities to you made certain that as the county moved

[1:17:04] forward, we would see a full implementation of the blueprint.

[1:17:09] So my question is in terms of budget priorities, is there anything within the ongoing development

[1:17:19] of the blueprint that is from your perspective that is not being addressed in the present

[1:17:27] budget?

[1:17:33] What I would say is there's a lot of unknowns.

[1:17:36] As you all know, we went through this legislative session with lots of potential amendments and

[1:17:43] changes to the blueprint cost. That has implications that I think as we close

[1:17:49] out this legislative season, everybody is trying to figure out and readjust some number

[1:17:55] calculations based on what was decided and what bills were amended and passed ultimately.

[1:18:04] So if you allow us a little bit more time I think at the state level we're all doing a couple

[1:18:08] of different recalculations of when the law has shifted their timelines of requirements

[1:18:15] and what that means for us to be able to get there.

[1:18:17] I will say that one of the big priorities for us is ensuring that we're able to keep

[1:18:25] competitive compensation structures as we look to implement requirements of the bill such

[1:18:30] as the 6040 time, right, that teachers are teaching 60% of the time.

[1:18:36] now that time frame of how that happens has been shifted slightly and so we want to make

[1:18:43] sure that the funding structure at the state level continues to be there and be solid

[1:18:48] to offset the match at the local level and so we have to make those recalculations carefully

[1:18:56] and so for us right now I think you heard from from our board chair and from Miss Acton the

[1:19:03] the tentative negotiation expectations that we're putting forward create an opportunity

[1:19:10] for us to be able to figure out the funding structures for time.

[1:19:16] For the layman's terms, if you're teaching 60% of the time and you use to teach 80% of

[1:19:21] the time, that means that you need more people to come in and work to make that to abide by

[1:19:27] the law.

[1:19:28] So that is why when we look at our salaries, our current

[1:19:33] compensations, and our future compensations, those are the things that we

[1:19:37] will need to think about getting adjusted because that means potentially more, it

[1:19:43] means either two things. More staff being in the school system or higher class sizes,

[1:19:49] and higher class sizes are a contingency point, rightfully so for our staff and

[1:19:55] our community. Just a quick follow-up because I know colleagues probably have questions.

[1:20:03] From the perspective of a layman, when we talk about the blueprint, additional costs

[1:20:10] to public education are associated with that discussion. But from the perspective of a

[1:20:25] performance increases.

[1:20:26] In other words, how are we able to show

[1:20:29] that the commitment to public education

[1:20:33] is actually showing in numbers,

[1:20:35] seeing that our school system is thriving

[1:20:40] and becoming more of an exceptional school system

[1:20:44] in comparison to the other jurisdictions in the state.

[1:20:47] Yeah, so I'll take two examples that I talk to communities

[1:20:52] and our families about.

[1:20:54] We started two years ago aggressively increasing the number

[1:20:58] of students in three and four-year-old pre-kindergarten programs.

[1:21:03] We assess how kids are doing in terms of their readiness

[1:21:06] as they transition into kindergarten,

[1:21:08] and that data has continuously gone up.

[1:21:11] So the investments that are required in the blueprint

[1:21:13] with bringing younger students to the formalized school setting

[1:21:18] continues to show us cohorts that as they enter kindergarten

[1:21:22] into first grade are more prepared and have a more solid structure compared to their counterparts

[1:21:28] that are coming from all types of care and education settings right into kindergarten.

[1:21:35] And at the other end of the spectrum, I would also echo that the blueprint has been very,

[1:21:43] has asked us to look at what are the experiences for high school students for college and career.

[1:21:51] And one of the things that we did as a school system, I'm very proud because I really do

[1:21:56] mean we.

[1:21:57] It was the classroom teachers, it's the principals in the schools, it's our families.

[1:22:01] We just barely doubled in the last three years the number of kids taking advanced placement

[1:22:07] classes across the system.

[1:22:10] And that is a huge accomplishment because we had been stagnant for quite a bit.

[1:22:15] And at the same time, the scores have not dipped at all.

[1:22:19] As most of you know, when you bring in additional students to be part of any more rigorous experience,

[1:22:25] many times school systems experience a decrease in the number of students that are getting,

[1:22:32] let's say, advanced placement, AP scores of three or higher. That was not our case,

[1:22:37] that has not been our case. And I would point to the strategic plan of the school system on our website

[1:22:43] on all of those measurements.

[1:22:45] We've also increased the CTE pathways and the completers,

[1:22:49] the kids that come out with industry certifications

[1:22:52] that are ready for the workforce.

[1:22:54] Those two pieces, and I'm just talking about the book ends,

[1:22:57] if you will, of the blueprint have been codified

[1:23:00] with this county's support.

[1:23:02] And this is a county I'm telling you

[1:23:04] compared to my counterparts is a county

[1:23:06] that doubles down and supports education.

[1:23:09] And as a result of those investments,

[1:23:11] we've seen the fruits of that work and we'll continue to do that in this budget if I may.

[1:23:17] We are expanding and we're not apologetic about it. The rigorous opportunities for our kids.

[1:23:25] We have here a line item to bring forward our first international

[1:23:30] evacuation program in Charles County. And so what we want to do is continue to meet the requirements

[1:23:39] of the blueprint but the most rigorous requirements which allow our kids to have really strong preparations

[1:23:46] once they leave us and so you see here that we added those additional pieces that continue the

[1:23:52] trajectory to meet the blueprint but also to ensure that our young people here are graduating with

[1:23:59] the best possible options before they leave us for whatever they decide to do next.

[1:24:07] I also want to

[1:24:08] add just some quick points that I was jotting down as Dr. Navarro was speaking.

[1:24:13] We've also expanded our partnership with the Charles County Chamber of Commerce to offer

[1:24:17] additional internships for our students.

[1:24:20] We've expanded our partnership with CSM.

[1:24:23] Early college numbers have significantly increased, as I shared before.

[1:24:26] My daughter was the benefit of some of that and graduated with CCPS with almost 40 college

[1:24:34] credits.

[1:24:34] and she's not graduating an entire year early with me at a 3.9 cumulative GPA.

[1:24:40] So our students are doing very well.

[1:24:42] I will admit and we are very candid that sometimes our test scores are not where we want them to be.

[1:24:47] You know, we don't hide from that. We're always working on that.

[1:24:50] But that does not mean that our students are not doing well.

[1:24:53] And those two things are not always mutually exclusive.

[1:24:56] And in addition to that, every year, and also sit on the board of the Charles County Scholarship Fund,

[1:25:02] We give away millions of dollars and you all attend our graduations. You know how well our students are doing

[1:25:07] So I want to be clear that we're very very proud of our scholars of our staff of the work that CCPS is doing

[1:25:14] Does not mean things are perfect. It doesn't mean that we rest and we're always constantly looking at how we can improve

[1:25:20] But we're doing amazing and I have shared publicly that I want to do a better job of sharing some of our

[1:25:27] successes, because on the national level we just received a national award for the National

[1:25:32] School Board's Association, the Magna Award, for our mental health program, which many

[1:25:37] districts came up to us and asked us, candidly, how are you making that happen? Because that

[1:25:41] is a need that many school systems are seeing. And it's something that we started with receiving

[1:25:48] grant funding for. We now have incorporated it into our budget, because that is the commitment

[1:25:52] that we're making to our scholars.

[1:25:54] So just one other small shameless plug, we're also very active on the state level.

[1:26:00] I sit on the board of directors of the Maryland Association of Boards of Education.

[1:26:03] Almost all of our board members serve on the state level in some capacity or committee.

[1:26:09] And also nationally, I recently was appointed chair of the National Black Council of School

[1:26:14] Board members and now sit on the National School Board of Directors.

[1:26:18] So, no shame in saying that many states, not just counties, many states have come to us and told us how impressed they are with the work that we're doing.

[1:26:28] Again, it's not mean that things are perfect, but we're doing very, very well.

[1:26:32] And we're being good stewards of the funding that we receive from both the county and the state.

[1:26:37] So I just wanted to add that as well.

[1:26:39] So I don't think, handily, sometimes we too don't own horn.

[1:26:42] These ladies here work around the clock, around the clock to handle many of the problems that we face.

[1:26:47] I think you

[1:26:52] mentioned earlier that the percentage that the county gives to the school board has I guess decreased over the years Jake

[1:26:59] Do you know where that percentage has moved to what department agency? I'm thinking parks and Iraq is probably the answer.

[1:27:06] It's twofold so a lot of the we are providing additional funding every year. It's to support additional emergency services crews.

[1:27:13] There's so much service.

[1:27:15] Yeah, most of that because public safety is a high, you know, you need to have a community feel safe for them, one of them to move the community to have a solid education.

[1:27:23] So we make sure we're providing adequate funds in the public safety, including the sheriff's office.

[1:27:28] So a lot of our growth has occurred there for additional staff or their into greater budget.

[1:27:35] And additionally under county government, as you mentioned,

[1:27:37] and regulation parks and tourism.

[1:27:39] We have a community is looking for a lot of enemies.

[1:27:42] Manatees, as you saw in that community survey,

[1:27:43] they're looking for more parks and more stuff.

[1:27:45] Because we got to find ways to attract them here.

[1:27:48] Because then they can realize what a solid education they get.

[1:27:50] They use our school system.

[1:27:52] But we also are doing those things

[1:27:54] because we have a lot of demands

[1:27:56] from our community related to recreation parks tourism

[1:28:00] as well as emergency services.

[1:28:01] I just wanted to clarify that because come up

[1:28:03] several times asking where that money is going

[1:28:05] because of the percentage decrease.

[1:28:07] So I think it's important to recognize to the public

[1:28:09] that's going to public safety and emergency services

[1:28:12] and parks and Iraq are the two bigger sources of that fund.

[1:28:15] And I will mention this is our third year in a row

[1:28:17] that we actually, I think,

[1:28:18] able to give more than 10 million to the school board.

[1:28:20] So even though there are percentages,

[1:28:22] it's not where they want it to be.

[1:28:24] But we are providing more funding every year beyond

[1:28:28] the maintenance of effort requirements.

[1:28:30] And we were just funding maintenance of effort,

[1:28:32] which is our legal requirement.

[1:28:33] I would say their share would be significantly smaller compared to the budget what it is now.

[1:28:39] So we are, education is always a high priority with us with the budget for the thing.

[1:28:45] But we also have a lot of wants and demands and needs from our community.

[1:28:49] And it's a balancing act and we're doing our best we can to not only provide adequate funding to the school system.

[1:28:55] 10 million a more year actually, there's two years we actually fully funded the request.

[1:28:59] Even though their percentage will be getting a little smaller, we still fully funded the request.

[1:29:02] us, as well as additional staffing for county government to achieve the commissioner goals

[1:29:07] and objectives as well as to keep our community safe.

[1:29:10] So if I got the, I'm sorry, I got a whole list, I'll prepare exactly this.

[1:29:15] The number I had and if I'm wrong, let me know, Jake, is the required maintenance of effort

[1:29:20] was actually $712,449. I think I got that number for me, does that sound about right?

[1:29:27] No, I think it was about two million in some time.

[1:29:29] I think that might have been from the year before, I think that was the year before or the year before that yeah, and the 40.7 million was the total request from the school system for state and local.

[1:29:41] And over and above that sound about in 29.6 from the county.

[1:29:46] So it's 25 and a half million that they're requesting from the county and they're they're getting 7 million from the from the state. So it's about 32 million.

[1:29:54] And I'm just trying to make sure my numbers are right because I did actually did some the the research and you know

[1:30:00] Commissioner President touched on it, and I'm going to follow up with it, talking about metrics. Everything we do here at the county, we try to use a metrics and data driven. So has there been a look at, because I've tried, and the only thing I have to go up on, not an education expert, is the MSD information that they provide on where the schools rank and all that stuff. And from 2010 to 2024, I was able to pull up some numbers per student, how much we've spent, we spend more per student than most of the jurisdictions around us. But the concerning part is where we rank,

[1:30:29] and where we've gone from 2018 when I started, to 2024.

[1:30:33] And I think that's where Commissioner President was getting it.

[1:30:36] Is there a metrics to show the amount we're investing in our students is actually showing in the performance of our students?

[1:30:41] And I think that's, and it's not, in any way, a negative connotation in saying,

[1:30:45] how can we help for us to do better?

[1:30:47] Because we have to look at things like this when we get into a budget,

[1:30:50] we're looking to go to the community and raise taxes.

[1:30:53] Because they're going to come to us and say, well, why are we raising taxes?

[1:30:56] We're going to support the school system, well, what are the results we're getting for that?

[1:30:59] Have you guys looked at that aspect through MSTE?

[1:31:02] That's the only way I had to track.

[1:31:04] If you have another way to track our rankings and where we are,

[1:31:07] because that's important, I think, as we move forward to do that.

[1:31:11] Yes, so as I mentioned before, we have a strategic plan that has not just the state assessment data

[1:31:18] that you mentioned, Commissioner, but it has the other requirements that the state requires for us.

[1:31:25] I will note that you're talking about the state assessments where the school system kind

[1:31:32] of ranks in the middle of the school systems across the state and how we're doing overall

[1:31:38] and our improvements.

[1:31:41] There are other metrics also that, you know, we are at the top of our graduation rates.

[1:31:47] We are at 90.3% I think was graduation rates.

[1:31:51] We have one of the lowest dropout rates in the state.

[1:31:58] When it comes to attendance and truancy, which is the measure of how often our kids absent more than 18 days.

[1:32:09] We are in a different place than the state average.

[1:32:13] We, while the state average has continued to increase in that area, we've actually decreased

[1:32:19] in the last four years with attendance rates.

[1:32:21] So, what I would say, Commissioner, and I'm happy after this meeting to send to all the

[1:32:25] commissioners the strategic plan metrics because what the board committed to was showing all

[1:32:31] of the metrics that are both codified in the blueprint, are required by MSDE, and that

[1:32:39] that are local metrics for performance

[1:32:41] that we also have in this strategic plan.

[1:32:44] And I'll just make a note about maintenance of effort

[1:32:46] because maintenance of effort as all of you know,

[1:32:51] cause all of us who deal with state agencies,

[1:32:55] maintenance of effort is something

[1:32:57] that is in place for education

[1:32:59] to make sure that school systems

[1:33:01] are, quote unquote, not underfunded.

[1:33:03] There is a lot of pressures this year in the funds,

[1:33:06] both at the state level that sort of got brought down

[1:33:10] to the local levels.

[1:33:11] The teacher pension, as Jake mentioned,

[1:33:14] is a great example.

[1:33:15] That two point, for us, I think it's 2.5 million dollars.

[1:33:19] The additional is the university, the higher ed pension.

[1:33:24] That is something that, you know,

[1:33:26] when, even though it's in your accounts,

[1:33:28] it impacts the full education account.

[1:33:31] So when you're talking about, you know,

[1:33:33] $11.2 million additional dollars plus the $2.8 million, I think, for accounting purposes,

[1:33:41] whether it's sitting in your budget, whether it's actually sitting in the board of

[1:33:44] education's budget, it's something that's impacting education.

[1:33:47] So we recognize that those funds have been coming down.

[1:33:50] But what I continue to turn to my community, which I get asked to all the time around what

[1:33:56] is the return on investment, is we put a plan together and we're about to roll out

[1:34:03] the next strategic plan, where we're very specific on the areas that we're working on because

[1:34:08] we listen to community members. We just finish an engagement strategic session where we had

[1:34:14] close to 4,000 people weigh in on what's the next strategic plan the next four years all about.

[1:34:21] And so the way we take our work is we hone in on the areas that our community is saying we need

[1:34:26] to work on. We put metrics behind it and then we come and report on those metrics moving forward.

[1:34:33] And that is where our strategic plan is, that is where we disaggregate our data, and

[1:34:40] it includes some of the, well, all of this data assessment data and it includes a whole

[1:34:45] bunch of other requirements that we have for the school system.

[1:34:49] And I appreciate that, I mean, because the only thing I had to go on, I went to the Maryland

[1:34:53] State Department of Education website and I basically went and looked at, like, I used,

[1:34:56] like, fifth, I think it was fifth grade academic achievement and I went and looked where we're

[1:35:00] We're at in 2018, and then I went and looked, Laura, I have a list of Mr. Sturker to see it, and I looked at where we are in T2024, and there is a difference.

[1:35:08] And so that's where I'm saying, I understand you're trying, and I'm not saying that you're not trying to address the issues, but I'm seeing a difference.

[1:35:13] I worry where I'm going to state and I'm wondering, you know, compared to what we spend per student, which is a lot more as considerable amount more than some of these other jurisdictions.

[1:35:23] The performance is where I'm concerned and I'm not saying that I want to work with you to help you I just I'm trying to understand where we've seen that shift because it's quite frankly the education system impacts economic development and impacts everything we do is a county so it impacts us because people move here because of the education system and public safety so when when I see these concerns this is the only place I really have to address it with you that I do so I feel like I'm just doing much

[1:35:52] So, if I could just jump in for a minute on the maintenance of effort and how the blueprint has put a squeeze on the school system, you know, the increase by the say to 7 million, right?

[1:36:04] So, the formulas do not give us full funding for the pre-K.

[1:36:09] So, as we expanded pre-K and pre-K is not considered part of the MOE and we have no inflationary increase on the MOE.

[1:36:17] So we're very grateful for what we get, but all of that has put a squeeze on the school system to provide the expansion in pre-K when those little ones are not included in any of these formulas of the funding that we get.

[1:36:32] So as we expand that, that becomes more of a challenge and then there is the always challenge of we don't get funded properly by the state for transportation or special it.

[1:36:43] So all of those things together.

[1:36:45] I don't want to be clear, as far as the state goes,

[1:36:48] they did not fulfill their obligations to you all.

[1:36:51] And they're passing them on to us.

[1:36:52] So I understand and hear the challenges you're facing.

[1:36:55] It's just we're trying to deal with it from our level too.

[1:36:58] Thank you very much.

[1:36:59] And Ed, as well as you know, we have 10 community schools

[1:37:02] and many of our schools are Title I.

[1:37:04] So the school system is being asked to do more and more

[1:37:07] and candidly to meet many of the needs of our students

[1:37:11] and community candidly.

[1:37:13] So that stretches the dollars further and further and also just to reiterate what Dr. Navarro said that I appreciate the data that you're looking at from NSD and I can understand from your point of view, why it's concerning but two key points.

[1:37:26] You know, looking at what happened between 2018 and 2025 we've we're in the 50 year really of COVID and still trying to rebound from all of that that just blindsided us and on many levels.

[1:37:36] and also there's not always a direct correlation between students who perform well academically

[1:37:42] and go on to achieve and students who may test well.

[1:37:46] And I say that as a mother of one of those students who's very high performing academically

[1:37:51] but doesn't always test well in standardized testing.

[1:37:54] So that's why it's got to be mentioned.

[1:37:56] That's one of the metrics that we have others that we look at.

[1:38:00] Good morning.

[1:38:01] I just wanted to weigh in.

[1:38:02] A lot has been discussed this morning.

[1:38:05] with respect to the budget overall.

[1:38:09] And then I'm going to talk to specifics

[1:38:11] about academic achievement with respect to test scores.

[1:38:17] So first, overall with the budget,

[1:38:21] I've had the opportunity lately

[1:38:22] to speak to some other individuals

[1:38:25] and other counties in the state of Maryland.

[1:38:27] And I'm sure you're not,

[1:38:30] you guys already know what's going on in other counties.

[1:38:34] with respect to their budget, and we're not going to sit here and do a roll call of what

[1:38:42] the projection is in other counties, but based on the conversations that I've had with

[1:38:47] some leaders and school leaders in other counties, they're in really a rough shape.

[1:38:54] They're laying off teachers, they are getting rid of programs.

[1:38:58] So I'm thankful that the Charles County Board of Education members and our staff has done a good job working together.

[1:39:10] So we won't be on the front of the paper after these budgets are approved like some other counties will.

[1:39:17] And it's unfortunate.

[1:39:18] it. I was sympathetic listening to some of these stories, but at the same time of

[1:39:25] Beyond, I said, oh, we'll have some more teachers. People will be looking for teaching

[1:39:31] businesses, maybe though, of the Charles County. But it's unfortunate. With respect to academic

[1:39:38] achievement, I agree with you 100%. You know, I was in the school system for many years and

[1:39:44] A lot of students, and just to make sure the public knows us and my colleagues is true,

[1:39:50] a lot of kids don't test well.

[1:39:54] However, and maybe the school system is not going to really speak on this part, but

[1:39:58] I can speak on this from experience.

[1:40:00] We still have a large number of students who do not take testing seriously.

[1:40:05] And so you can have the state assessments, you can have the county benchmarks, and you know

[1:40:10] they're bright.

[1:40:10] You know that they know the answers, but they will literally just not answer the questions or they just sit there and hit see, see, see, next, see, next, see, next.

[1:40:23] So when you look at their report card, it doesn't line up to the actual test assessment scores. So please be mindful of that.

[1:40:31] The other thing is COVID, COVID did hurt all schools, the systems across the country with

[1:40:41] a test score.

[1:40:42] So I'll always say let's be mindful of that.

[1:40:45] And the other thing is at the end of the day, and I know I'm not asking for you to really

[1:40:52] We go into Jake the history, but it's also important to take an account, the Maryland policy

[1:41:03] or law procedures regarding how much money the state gives to counties.

[1:41:08] As we grow economically, as we become a stronger and stronger county, the state is going to

[1:41:14] give us the Board of Education less money.

[1:41:17] So it's really important for when we look at the number the amount of money we get per pupil that's going to change in the state's the state's philosophy is one paper if the county is doing better than they can shoulder more of the funds.

[1:41:35] And so when we look at year-to-year academic achievement when we look at year-to-year how much money the school system is receiving.

[1:41:44] part of that conversation needs to be economically, how have we changed as a county, and you'll see the shift of the responsibility from the state to the county.

[1:41:55] And that unless the state of Maryland changes their process, that's going to continue and more and more is going to be shoulder on county government.

[1:42:05] But just thank you for everything that you guys do.

[1:42:07] you know if I could the dollar bill that Jake had up there if I could stretch that dollar bill

[1:42:17] even more you guys know I love the entire county but you know my heart always and we'll always

[1:42:24] start with the Charles County Board of Education with our kids because I truly believe parks and

[1:42:32] is important and they know that I advocate for them strongly also but for us to be a better

[1:42:39] community to be a safe community to be a community where people want to live it all starts with

[1:42:45] our school system and as mothers of you know college kids that came through the public education

[1:42:52] system and kids that are doing well we thank you as parents I want to thank you for everything that

[1:42:58] that you've done to help all parents,

[1:43:01] but you know, especially me to make sure

[1:43:03] I have a successful, successful child.

[1:43:08] So it does take, what did I say, it takes a village

[1:43:12] and you're definitely part of the village, so thank you.

[1:43:17] Okay, first I want to say thank you

[1:43:19] for educating our children and of course my grandchildren.

[1:43:22] So, but thank you so much.

[1:43:24] In addition, I also want to give you guys

[1:43:26] scootos to your response based on the recent activities that you've had to deal with lately.

[1:43:32] And the town hall was awesome.

[1:43:33] Thank you so much for that information.

[1:43:35] Okay, so I just have a question.

[1:43:37] And you probably already have this statistics.

[1:43:39] But I wanted to know, you talk about it so proudly and rightfully so your enrollment has increased.

[1:43:45] Can you give me a breakdown and you can send it if you want to break down what that increase looks like

[1:43:51] from elementary, middle, and high school?

[1:43:54] And you know, if you can do a breakdown a little bit further, that's fine, but what that increased look like for each of those schools and each of the grade levels.

[1:44:07] I know you'll do the cost per pupil.

[1:44:11] So if you have that on that as well, that'll be helpful for me just to have some information because I know we have other public hearings.

[1:44:20] and we have other things that are going to be coming up, so just, you know,

[1:44:24] but Kudos to you guys for educating our children.

[1:44:28] It takes a lot to educate them.

[1:44:30] Trust me, as a grandma, it takes a lot for me to raise, to help raise my grandchildren.

[1:44:35] Okay. Kudos to the grandmas.

[1:44:37] Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[1:44:44] Thank you again.

[1:44:48] So moving on to our next agency, Carol, would be page 31, which is the Sheriff's Office.

[1:44:53] and Taney, it will explain what's in the proposed budget.

[1:44:57] So, the proposed budget for the sheriff.

[1:45:00] The office is $138,974,000 and this provides for salary increases. It provides for the funding for the holiday pay for Christmas and Thanksgiving and for the two premium pays for the two tech teams. Includes funding for a new digital evidence, evidence custodian, which is a full time position. And this was the Charles County Sheriff's Office, number one priority. It also converts a court security officer, a graphic technician, a budget analyst, a training assistant,

[1:45:28] a fingerprint technician, a record receptionist, and a counting analyst from part time to full time, and it converts a background administrative full time reduced hour to full time.

[1:45:39] It funds the schedule contribution to the sheriff's office retirement plan for the pension plan increase, provides funding for an in-of-life equipment and other capital outlay needs.

[1:45:49] It concludes the full year impact of the FY 25 impact for the new 16 new positions

[1:45:55] that were approved for 10 sworn officers and four for the bodyguarant camera.

[1:46:01] The property insurance increases and other post-employment benefits increase for the sheriff

[1:46:05] office.

[1:46:05] That's included in the central services budget.

[1:46:08] And this year we're giving them just under $3 million for capital outlaid needs last

[1:46:12] year.

[1:46:13] They were provided at 1.2 million.

[1:46:15] So if you exclude those, they're getting a 5% increase.

[1:46:17] And above that, request greater than baseline, the shares are pressing an additional 9.6 million for it.

[1:46:24] And this was for others, foreign officers, civilian positions, and increases in hours, ranks, and or specialty pay.

[1:46:33] So that commissioners, we do have, looks like I have a video.

[1:46:37] You have a video? Okay, so to

[1:47:34] the

[1:47:53] board of county commissioners, the FY2026 budget conversation has begun.

[1:47:59] I appreciate the opportunity to present the Charles County Sheriff's Office budget request and concerns to you.

[1:48:06] I look forward to working with each of you through this budgetary process.

[1:48:11] First, I would like to thank all of the staff members at the Charles County Sheriff's Office for their hard work and dedication in keeping this community safe.

[1:48:21] The staff members include correctional officers, police officers, and civilian personnel.

[1:48:27] Well, I want to thank them for the outstanding work they have done.

[1:48:32] And I want to highlight their accomplishments of the agency over the last year.

[1:48:38] Among these notable accomplishments are the full implementation of the Fire Arm Optics

[1:48:45] Project, which enhances the Office of Safety and Operational Efficiency.

[1:48:50] The renovations at the District One Station, which improve facilities within the agency,

[1:48:57] and the reaccreditation by Kalea, which reinforced the agency's commitment to excellence in law enforcement standards and best practices.

[1:49:07] And lastly, the Charles County Detention Center achieved an excellent compliance audit by the Maryland Commission of correction standards.

[1:49:17] These accomplishments are examples of the superior law enforcement services that are

[1:49:24] provided in this community.

[1:49:28] As we know, a strong and well-resourced public safety system is the foundation of a thriving

[1:49:35] community.

[1:49:37] These funds are an investment to safety, security, and economic development.

[1:49:42] Public safety resources must expand to keep pace with the enormous growth in our community.

[1:49:50] A well-supported public safety infrastructure not only deters crime, but enhances emergency

[1:49:57] response, but also forces a sense of security that attracts businesses, supports property

[1:50:03] tax values, and encourage community investment.

[1:50:07] The dollars allocated today are an investment in our collective well-being and long-term prosperity.

[1:50:15] With more growth, it puts a significant demand on public safety services, which includes

[1:50:22] fire, EMS, and law enforcement.

[1:50:25] Public safety calls for service here in Charles County have increased, and these calls for services

[1:50:33] more complex and dangerous for staff members.

[1:50:37] As a result, Charles County faces many challenges.

[1:50:41] The challenges are substance abuse, mental health, issues,

[1:50:46] gun violence, and youth-related criminal activity.

[1:50:50] Charles County needs to create wraparound services to support public safety,

[1:50:56] and mitigate and address these issues in our community.

[1:51:01] So, what are the Charles Kennedy Sheriff's Office budgetary priorities?

[1:51:05] Doing this budget cycle, the Charles Kennedy Sheriff's Office will be making several requests to add, upgrade, and convert several civilian positions.

[1:51:15] Our civilian staff is essential to the effectiveness and efficiency of our law enforcement operations.

[1:51:22] from records management and dispatch to evidence processing and community outreach,

[1:51:29] civilian personnel and operational capacity, improves response time and ensures compliance

[1:51:37] with vital policies and procedures.

[1:51:40] Moreover, the staffing levels for our police are not meeting the needs to maintain safety

[1:51:47] and security in our communities.

[1:51:50] I'm requesting 21 police officers for this budget cycle to keep pace with the calls for service and increases in our population.

[1:52:02] There are increases in contractual services such as computer costs, which is the Ralphie agency, pharmaceutical, medical and

[1:52:12] food services expenditures at our detention center.

[1:52:15] And finally, the Charles Kennedy Sheriff's Office needs to purchase and replace various

[1:52:21] technology platforms, hardened facilities to enhance security, replace less than lethal

[1:52:29] use of force options, civil unrest equipment, and various weapon platforms.

[1:52:35] In closing, I am keenly aware of the financial strains facing our county and our state, and

[1:52:43] And I do not make these requests lightly.

[1:52:46] The Charles County Sheriff's Office has been a good steward over the taxpayer dollars, and we need these dollars to keep Charles County safe.

[1:52:55] I look forward to working with the Board of County commissioners and maintaining safety and security in Charles County.

[1:53:03] Thank you and God bless.

[1:53:04] Yes,

[1:53:14] commissioners. We do have online. It looks like it appears we do have the sheriff's office staff online presented by Mr. Yuley, so if there's any questions from the commissioners, a feedback, now it's a good time to do it.

[1:53:27] Commissioner Cotes.

[1:53:29] I do.

[1:53:30] The video played on the broadcast, but I couldn't get it to work on teams. So it has been videoed on the broadcast.

[1:53:40] So,

[1:53:44] I'm not sure who's from the sheriff office, when someone's from the sheriff office.

[1:53:47] Okay, my question is, how many vacancies currently do you have open for officers?

[1:53:52] And my second question is, what's the average number of officers needed per whichever that

[1:53:59] amount of students, I mean, I'm sorry, citizens?

[1:54:03] So those are my two questions.

[1:54:05] Minimum staffing per patrocia.

[1:54:08] This is Brian E. Lee, Chief of Staff for the Sheriff's Office.

[1:54:13] Currently, we have 32 vacancies for police officers, and we are going to be having a Academy class in August, August 22nd to be specific.

[1:54:23] So those are our vacancies at the moment. We are continuing constantly recruiting like every other organization in law enforcement for police officers and correctional officers.

[1:54:36] And your second question was what, man?

[1:54:38] How many officers, statistically, how many officers are required per how many citizens?

[1:54:46] How do you base your statistics on how many officers you're going to need?

[1:54:50] Because I think you just made a share pair, made a request of 20 some officers or 21, 21 officers.

[1:54:58] So how do you, what's your stats on that?

[1:55:01] How do you determine that?

[1:55:02] But you're not based on the first citizen in terms of population.

[1:55:07] We've based it upon growth, we've based it upon known extent and heavily populated areas

[1:55:15] where we receive a lot of our calls for service.

[1:55:17] So our officers and we also presented recently to the commissioners a plan for growth.

[1:55:24] We presented that to the commissioners in terms of we understand and know who growth is

[1:55:30] going to take place and to reduce some of our sectors.

[1:55:33] I mean, the sectors are areas in which a officer is assigned.

[1:55:37] Some of those sectors are growing where you need to add,

[1:55:40] not, you need to add another officer to that sector in order

[1:55:43] to be, make sure that the calls for services remain the same.

[1:55:47] The response times are within, within reason.

[1:55:50] And so that's the factors that we use to determine

[1:55:53] the number of officers.

[1:55:54] We do not do it by population.

[1:55:56] Okay, so my follow-up is what's the growth and then I'm going to get some kind of I guess number. What's the growth ratio that you determine that you need these officers for the number of officers?

[1:56:10] We work with your planning and growth management. We meet with them quarterly and we also meet them to get known areas that are going to be developed on corridors, especially through the white plains area and other populated areas.

[1:56:24] and we know that expansion is coming.

[1:56:26] So it's not a matter of its system paper,

[1:56:29] we know its comments.

[1:56:30] So we're trying to plan for the future growth

[1:56:33] for the shares office in terms

[1:56:35] of making sure we maintain the same quality service.

[1:56:39] So in terms of exact numbers,

[1:56:42] we can send that to you,

[1:56:44] but we get that from the planning group management

[1:56:46] for things that have been approved

[1:56:48] for subdivision for commercial establishments.

[1:56:52] That's how we make that determination

[1:56:53] And as you end, our calls for service and the response times.

[1:56:57] So all those are factors in making that request for those number of officers.

[1:57:03] Thank you.

[1:57:04] Thank you.

[1:57:05] Sure, thank you.

[1:57:08] Mr. Ailey, this is Commissioner Bowling, how are you today?

[1:57:11] I'm very well sir.

[1:57:12] So I did want to touch on the adequate public safety ordinance that staff I know is working on with you all.

[1:57:18] And I think that might kind of flow into what Commissioner Coates is asking.

[1:57:22] With the adequate public safety, we're going to take into consideration response times, calls for service, all those factors and new development to take into consideration how many officers we kind of need and apply that and have a metrics form and also a funding mechanism to be able to fund these requests as we get in the future.

[1:57:41] So I think, if I understand you correctly, you're facing, you know, your need for officers right now on your response times and the rate of growth from planning, growth management.

[1:57:54] Is that correct?

[1:57:55] That is correct.

[1:57:57] And to ensure that our quality of service remains where it's at.

[1:58:02] We do not have one of our citizens calling us and it takes an enormous amount of time for us to

[1:58:08] Come to their residents business where it may be where we're dispatched

[1:58:12] We want to be able to

[1:58:13] Respond in a timely and reasonable fashion. I appreciate that and I'm hopeful this time next year

[1:58:19] We'll have this adequate public safety ordinance up and running to make sure that you guys have the funding you need not only you

[1:58:25] But DS and in the hospital. So I appreciate the fact you all are working with

[1:58:29] with our planning growth management division

[1:58:32] to try to make this happen.

[1:58:33] So thank you all.

[1:58:35] Thank you.

[1:58:37] One other question.

[1:58:38] I'm sorry, Mr. Ealee.

[1:58:40] For those 32 vacancies,

[1:58:44] are you, what's your recruiting look like?

[1:58:47] I know you said you're working on recruiting,

[1:58:48] but generally how long does it take to recruit

[1:58:51] and get someone in service?

[1:58:54] Because 32 was a lot of vacancies.

[1:58:56] So how long will it take these 32 to get?

[1:58:59] If we do need to 21.

[1:59:02] Well, I will say to you is this we do continuous recruiting,

[1:59:09] whether it's by on air, whether it's by social media in person.

[1:59:17] And basically our best recruiters are our people.

[1:59:22] And we have things in place to have our officers, our civilians,

[1:59:25] and our congressional officers assist us in recruiting individuals.

[1:59:30] So it's a constant.

[1:59:32] One of the things that we're up against in every other agency in this metropolitan area,

[1:59:38] there are a lot of opportunities in this region for law enforcement.

[1:59:43] So individuals who are highly qualified and meet the standards,

[1:59:47] they generally have options of where they want to go.

[1:59:50] We do a good job in attracting people from other police departments

[1:59:54] who want to come here, and it's based upon some of the things you guys talked about earlier.

[2:00:00] That is the quality of life in Charles County. That is access to parks, it is access to the recreational

[2:00:09] things that has to offer schools, the public safety. All of that plays a role in officers

[2:00:15] who are currently employed wanting to come here and work. The other thing in terms of

[2:00:20] the time period, it can take from the time that they passed the, I mean, passed the physical

[2:00:28] agility test and the written test, it generally takes five to six months within the get through

[2:00:33] the entire process. And that depends on when we're having an academy. So it is a lengthy,

[2:00:38] but it is also a thorough background investigation that goes through a multitude of different things,

[2:00:45] which I won't go into today, but it is very thorough and it takes a while, is not something that

[2:00:51] happens in 30 days. And that's based upon the requirements from the Maryland Police Training Commission

[2:00:57] also. We have to adhere and follow and certify that individuals meet all of those standards.

[2:01:04] That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you for putting in the shameless plug about employment.

[2:01:09] So yeah, those who are in need of jobs are certainly this is a great opportunity.

[2:01:14] So thank you, Mr. Ealy instead. Thank you.

[2:01:23] Okay, moving on to the next agency budget,

[2:01:27] It would be the College of Southern Maryland and Ms. Jury Akka will go west in the proposed budget.

[2:01:35] The proposed budget for the College of Southern Maryland for fiscal year 2026 is just over $12 million.

[2:01:43] The proposed budget includes funding to support the maintenance of effort requirement, which is $700,500.

[2:01:50] It includes additional funding of 51,000 to support the mediation center.

[2:01:55] The additional funding allows for the converting of a part-time position to a full-time position, as well as a part-time position.

[2:02:04] Funding to support the CSM retirement cost shift of 128,000 that will be directly paid by Charles County Government.

[2:02:14] Including the CSM retirement cost, the budget increases 7.7%.

[2:02:19] The county's debt service payment associated with the CIP for

[2:02:23] College of Southern Maryland projects is in the debt service budget and equals approximately 1.8 million.

[2:02:29] Request that we're greater than proposed is support for the nonprofit institute of $10,000 and

[2:02:37] additional support for the Mediation Center of 988.

[2:02:42] Commissioners, we do have College of Southern Maryland to speak to their budget request.

[2:02:46] So

[2:02:52] good morning,

[2:03:05] so good morning commissioners, it's so good to see all of you this morning and thank you so much for this opportunity.

[2:03:11] I'm Yolanda Wilson, I'm the proud president of College of Southern Maryland and we're delighted to be with you this morning.

[2:03:17] I want to give a special thank you also to Deb and Jake they've been amazing to work with and thank you so much for the many conversations and helping us think through the best solution for the institution.

[2:03:29] I'm joined here with my chief finance officer, Judy, males, our executive director, Catherine

[2:03:36] DeBirl, and my assistant VP of government relations, Karen Smith-Hut, who's behind me.

[2:03:42] And they'll do most of the talking.

[2:03:43] I'm just going to frame it up just a bit because we haven't had a chance to have our state

[2:03:47] of the college as of yet.

[2:03:48] So I thought a few statistics since we were talking about data a little earlier may be helpful.

[2:03:53] So the College of Southern Maryland is the sixth largest in the state out of 16

[2:03:58] community colleges. We have 14,971 students as a fiscal year 24. Annual

[2:04:06] impact for our 16 community colleges in the state of Maryland is $8.7 billion.

[2:04:11] And our community colleges support over 113,000 jobs statewide. Bring in that

[2:04:18] But here locally, with Charles County, thinking of us as the economic engine of our communities,

[2:04:25] we have, again, 14,971 students, half of which are transfer students, the other half

[2:04:33] of whom are in workforce development credentials or non-credit seeking students, our EMS students

[2:04:41] doing phlebotomy, students doing welding, plumbing, et cetera.

[2:04:45] We also, of Charles County, of that 14,971, approximately 40% of our students come from

[2:04:55] Charles County, 40%.

[2:04:57] And of that, 40%, we've seen a 2.2% increase in that number in the past year.

[2:05:05] We also have around 700 early college students, dual enrollment students from Charles County.

[2:05:10] And this year at our Make Commencement, hopefully you're able to join us on May 9th, we'll have over 80 graduates, early college students from Charles County, so we're incredibly excited about those numbers and those metrics in our partnership with our school system.

[2:05:28] And they are busing students to our Hughesville campus for our CTE pathways and expansion and extension of that support in the blueprint.

[2:05:36] They're taking courses at our Health Sciences Center and at the Health Sciences Center they're

[2:05:42] taking pharmaceutical tech and they're taking medical coding and billing so we are really

[2:05:48] excited about that.

[2:05:50] Our request is one that helps support that growth and also supports our Mediation Center

[2:05:56] that's doing also phenomenal work and I'm going to turn it over to Judy and Catherine to

[2:06:01] talk a little bit more about our why.

[2:06:05] Thank you again, Judy Mills, Vice President for Financial Services.

[2:06:09] Thank you, Dr. Wilson.

[2:06:10] She highlighted a lot of the same information I was going to cover, so I might skip around

[2:06:15] and do that.

[2:06:15] I wanted to give you, first, thank you for letting us come and present to you.

[2:06:22] And I wanted to give just a quick overview of the budget.

[2:06:25] Our overall budget increased 2.1%, a very modest 2.1%, and we put a lot of hard work into making

[2:06:33] sure that the increase wasn't higher than that for a variety of reasons that I'll go into shortly.

[2:06:39] Excuse me. We're happy to say that we're able to balance our budget without an increase,

[2:06:44] a tuition increase to our students. And this is the second year in a row that we've been able to do

[2:06:48] that. And I know Dr. Wilson and our board are extremely proud to be able to say that because we do

[2:06:54] not want to burden our students any more than necessary. We want to be able to help them, you know,

[2:07:00] achieve and and and reach their goals. So keeping them steady is something that

[2:07:06] we've really put an intentional thought to.

[2:07:10] We are though also at please

[2:07:13] to and it to be able to report that we're seeing an increase in enrollment. We

[2:07:17] are projecting another 3.4% increase in the tuition and free revenue for

[2:07:22] FY26 and we've been seeing some consistent enrollment increases for the last

[2:07:26] last four or so semesters, which were happy to report to you.

[2:07:33] We're also expecting to see a continued increase in our

[2:07:37] miscellaneous revenues. That includes interest.

[2:07:39] I know Jake talked about how interest seems to be leveling off.

[2:07:43] It is, but we're still seeing healthy interest earnings,

[2:07:48] but we're also seeing with the renewed interest that Dr. Wilson

[2:07:51] has brought to the community, the college, a lot more involvement

[2:07:54] people coming to the college room, rentals, activity on campus, things like that, and that's part of our miscellaneous revenue that we incorporate into the budget.

[2:08:05] Unfortunately, as you may be aware, we received a decrease in funding from the state.

[2:08:13] The state funds us based on what's called the Cade Formula, which incorporates FTEs for the community colleges as a whole,

[2:08:20] and they're allocated based on our historical results and that three-year look back that the

[2:08:28] state uses, unfortunately, in cooperative years before we're seeing these increases.

[2:08:35] Our future, we should see increases with the state, but because some of the years they

[2:08:39] incorporated into the analysis, the evaluation we had decreases.

[2:08:44] And so we were only one of two community colleges to receive a decrease.

[2:08:48] that original decrease was $851,000 for FY26.

[2:08:54] Subsequently, we they go up,

[2:08:56] we we plead our case to the state

[2:08:58] and they reinstituted 300,000.

[2:09:01] So our decrease for FY26 from the state

[2:09:05] is just over 551,000.

[2:09:09] We had also seen a decrease in our funding

[2:09:11] for our current FY25 year that was $787,000.

[2:09:16] So for this two-year period, we're seeing a decrease of state funding of $1.3 million.

[2:09:23] That's a big hit.

[2:09:24] And that's something that why we had to go and so indefinitely into looking at our budget

[2:09:29] and reevaluating our expenses and seeing where we could streamline and see some savings.

[2:09:36] And we have done that.

[2:09:37] We've taken a hard look.

[2:09:39] We've done a lot of cost-cutting, again, streamlining and removal of any duplications

[2:09:45] that we may have found along the way.

[2:09:49] So this current budget, as I said, is a 2.1% increase ever FY 25.

[2:09:54] That's 1.4 million.

[2:09:56] It does include a 2% market increase for our staff and faculty.

[2:10:01] And a continued emphasis on our student support services and then sufficient budgeting for facility

[2:10:07] maintenance and operations.

[2:10:09] And as the Board of Ed indicated, we do have a growing relationship with all the boards

[2:10:15] of ed due to the blueprint and we see we're seeing expansion of our dual enrollment or dual enrollment

[2:10:23] and early college as well as homeschool is an expanding area that we're seeing and we're working

[2:10:29] with our homeschool students and families and offering opportunities for them at the college so we've

[2:10:36] incorporated those. And I'd also add thank you for that Judy I just thought about something for our

[2:10:43] our blueprint expansion to release some of the burden off of our county partners.

[2:10:47] We absorbed additional costs to scale up the blueprint for enrollment for students.

[2:10:53] So the state had a 75-25 formula.

[2:10:55] We did a 50-50 formula, so CSM is a gazuel reading some of the costs to increase those number

[2:11:01] of dual enrollment early college students.

[2:11:03] I think that's an important piece to note because that is not statewide and we're one of the

[2:11:07] few counties or few community colleges that decided to do that because we didn't want any students

[2:11:11] to be denied access to dual enrollment early college opportunities because the county may

[2:11:16] have struggled with funding it. So I decided to add that.

[2:11:19] Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Wilson. So our funding request to you incorporates a 6% increase

[2:11:25] in the maintenance of effort, which is the $7,500 that Jake referenced. And this is based

[2:11:33] on the county's share of head, count, and square footage. And we do that for all three counties.

[2:11:37] we look at your share, each county share of the head count of which Charles County has 47,

[2:11:45] almost 48% of the head count. And then we also look at square footage and Charles County holds

[2:11:51] 60.8% of the square footage. And any increase that we request, we allocate it based on each

[2:11:58] county share of those two items and come up with the 700,000 that we asked of you.

[2:12:06] And as also pointed out, we asked the initial request included $150,000 for the Mediation

[2:12:13] Center.

[2:12:14] And I know Ms. Walton had come and presented on a nice presentation to you showing just

[2:12:18] how much her department is growing and how much the need is out there for her services.

[2:12:24] So we incorporate, we ask for an increase there as well as an unarmed profit.

[2:12:28] We do appreciate the recommended budget that you would recommend that Jake is recommending

[2:12:34] the maintenance of effort, and I portion of the increase for the mediation center,

[2:12:40] Julie will be thrilled to hear that. She definitely needs additional personnel to help with the

[2:12:45] increasing requests that she's seeing.

[2:12:50] So we're thankful, we're thankful for your support.

[2:12:53] Without your support, we couldn't help our students to achieve their dreams and their goals

[2:12:59] that they come to us, or are there any questions?

[2:13:06] I have a question, but thank you.

[2:13:07] I know it's going to be a tough budget.

[2:13:10] Sorry, it's just happening, but I appreciate you all working with us.

[2:13:13] Thank you for what you do.

[2:13:14] And I would echo thank you.

[2:13:16] We all are doing more for less, so thank you so much for presenting

[2:13:21] and absolutely.

[2:13:25] Thank you so much for your support.

[2:13:26] I just want to add on this. I'm really excited that under your leadership, the dual program

[2:13:34] with you and Dr. Navarro has increased hearing a lot of good things, I truly believe that

[2:13:42] it's best not just for young people individually, but as a overall for the school system. I've

[2:13:49] always been an advocate and say to the principals, to the superintendents and everyone else who

[2:13:55] would listen, let's increase our dual programs

[2:13:57] so we can get kids out of the building, right?

[2:14:01] So in the high schools,

[2:14:03] you're actually decreasing the population

[2:14:05] that's there full days.

[2:14:09] You're really giving more space.

[2:14:11] So just thank you, not just to mention

[2:14:14] all of the opportunities students are offered

[2:14:19] to earn the college credit prior

[2:14:21] to their high school graduation day.

[2:14:24] so thank you. Thank you. It's our pleasure. We have a dedicated position that we hired last year

[2:14:31] director of educational partnerships and she actually coordinates all of that effort for us in

[2:14:36] the three counties. We've expanded our academic support of our students so they get free not only

[2:14:41] math support but now free writing. We set up a writing center so that's free tutoring there.

[2:14:48] We're launching our Center for Teaching and Learning May. We'll have our ribbon cutting later on

[2:14:53] in this month, in the month of May, to help our faculty have additional tools in their toolbox.

[2:15:04] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[2:15:06] to share pedagogy, share educational strategies and tools so that we can make sure that vertical

[2:15:12] alignment as a transition from the school system to us is smooth for the student. So we've

[2:15:18] got a couple of things that we're doing that we're really excited about. And Charles County

[2:15:23] also has a dedicated person now that's kind of a liaison between CSM and the school system

[2:15:30] that will spend time on our campus. We'll have an office. We'll be there as a kind of success

[2:15:35] best coach for the students, we're building a schedule where they have to be there, not

[2:15:40] this semester, but coming up, where they'll have to be there every day, building in academic

[2:15:45] supports and all of that.

[2:15:46] So, we've got some really great conversations, they're wonderful partners, and we're excited

[2:15:51] about the yields that it will have for our students and the outcomes.

[2:15:55] So thank you.

[2:15:55] Thank you.

[2:15:56] I can't wait to hear more about the vertical learning between your faculty and the Board

[2:16:01] of Education faculty.

[2:16:02] That's exciting.

[2:16:03] So thank you.

[2:16:04] excited about that.

[2:16:06] Thank you.

[2:16:07] Do you have a question?

[2:16:09] And as far as your enrollment, because I think you guys said that your student enrollment

[2:16:12] has come, if you can get those numbers, if you have those numbers, you look like you're

[2:16:17] already prepared for that, your enrollment number increases because I know you're so proud

[2:16:20] and we are too.

[2:16:22] And you're dual enrollment, because that's important to note that that also has increased.

[2:16:27] And I know you had a threshold that you started with and then where you are today, when you

[2:16:33] started that threshold. Catherine has that information for you? Yes, I have. Currently the

[2:16:38] enrollment from 2020-23 is the jump 2.2 percent. It was 58-16 and it jumped to 59-42 in 2024.

[2:16:50] And that includes our dual enrollment and credit and credit-free students. And overall

[2:17:01] increase by the county it was the um the combination of all three counties it was an increase of 4.6%.

[2:17:12] So in 2021 it was 5,495 students and in 2024 is 5,942 students. So 5,495 in 2021 and it's moved to 5,942 in 2024.

[2:17:29] for Charles County alone.

[2:17:31] I have to speak to the job that you guys are doing in the collaboration with your partner.

[2:17:37] So thank you so much.

[2:17:43] Thank you, ladies.

[2:17:45] The next budget we're going to go, which would probably be our quickest budget page.

[2:17:49] What we're going to do with the commissioner today is page 33, which is a state pension call shift.

[2:17:53] And this is the mandated call set the state government and the budget has decided to shift to Charles County.

[2:17:59] I mean, we don't really have a say in this, we just got to pay the bill when they sent it to us.

[2:18:03] But the call shift for teacher pension was $2,786,500 of that $2,658,500 is for

[2:18:11] the public schools teachers pension retirement cost and then just under 128,000 is related to the college of Southern Ireland.

[2:18:20] So there's essentially funds that we had to add into the budget and

[2:18:22] essentially takes away funding from other agencies and departments because we had a fundum.

[2:18:27] So that's the last funding that could have been provided because of this call shift.

[2:18:31] Thank you.

[2:18:33] Hey, Jake, we pick up the pension from the state all across the board between the colleges and the school.

[2:18:39] So this is the additional increase that they're doing.

[2:18:42] So it builds into the public schools budget.

[2:18:47] They do share their pension costs out of their budget to the school.

[2:18:51] This time, the state government decided the additional costs that they were going to build for

[2:18:57] Our teacher passion was going to go to county governments, not to the port of ed.

[2:19:01] Right, so we shifted the cost to the additional cost.

[2:19:04] Yes, the additional cost, yes.

[2:19:06] Thank you, you're welcome.

[2:19:09] Okay, on page 34, we have a library's budget.

[2:19:11] They're just getting just over $6 million, $6 million, $10,800, is a 5.1% increase.

[2:19:19] And including in their budget is funding for the health care cost.

[2:19:22] An increase of $262,500 to support their operation to include salary increases for staff.

[2:19:27] The state funding is estimated increased by approximately 30,000 and the county's debt service payment includes capital asset finance and cost for a replacement vehicle for the library.

[2:19:39] And the request greater than proposed library was crossing an additional 680,000 from the county, which was for eight full time and three part time positions in support for the new Laplata library.

[2:19:49] It's part of the Dolly Poppins Imagination Library, a compensation study, and then in other

[2:19:55] like revenue and expense suggestions are requesting another $57.6.

[2:19:59] I do want to add that the $508,000 impact for the new library, it's ultimately needed once the new

[2:20:05] library is built and began, but they wanted to submit their request because at some point,

[2:20:10] they need to build up their staff to accommodate when that new building opens up.

[2:20:14] But we do have representatives from the library, I think, online if there's a

[2:20:18] to speak, if able, or to answer any questions from the commissioners.

[2:20:26] Good morning. Hi, this is Jessica Cruz, the HR director at the library.

[2:20:30] I'm sorry, my camera is not working.

[2:20:34] I am filling in for Kenneth Wayne Thompson this morning.

[2:20:37] He has something come up and was unable to attend.

[2:20:40] And so I'll just go over some of the highlights from our request.

[2:20:46] As Jake mentioned, part of our request included salary increases to include merit in Kola for

[2:20:54] our staff.

[2:20:55] And then the Dalai Parton Imagination Library.

[2:20:58] This is a program that provides, it's a gift book, a book gifting program that mails free

[2:21:06] high quality age appropriate books to children from birth ages 5 through birth to age 5 no matter

[2:21:15] the family's income. On the program has been very popular and has grown year over year and so

[2:21:21] we are asking $29,000 extra dollars in support of this program. Additionally for our contracted services

[2:21:32] line item. We were requesting a compensation study. It's been five years since we've

[2:21:38] last done a compensation study and this is something that we would like to have the ability

[2:21:43] to do again to ensure that we are paying our staff competitively.

[2:21:49] And then as Jake noted, we recognize that we will be asking for additional staff once the new

[2:21:57] library is built, but we will align that with the library's progress and when the time comes

[2:22:04] we can read and set that. And with that, I can answer any questions or I'm happy to pass

[2:22:10] anything along to Kenneth Mayne and get back to you.

[2:22:19] Thank you.

[2:22:32] I think we're good on the library,

[2:22:33] but do we want to wait for Jake to get back or I can continue with State's Attorney? Keep going.

[2:22:38] Okay. The next budget on page 35 is for the state's attorney. We are proposing funding them at 8.3 million, which is a 5.3% increase from the 2025 adopted budget.

[2:22:52] What is in the 2026 proposed budget? It is the full year impact of six new positions from 2025.

[2:23:00] It includes additional operating costs to meet the growing demands on the state's attorney's office.

[2:23:05] It continues funding to support the body-worn camera program, and there were several things that were

[2:23:13] requested, but not funded, 130,000 for a specialty court attorney, 320,000 for three attorney

[2:23:22] positions to support the addition of a six judge if it's approved, and 162,000 for two support staff

[2:23:30] have positions to support the addition of a six-judge if approved.

[2:23:38] Commissioners, Mr. Covington is online and with his camera on, so he's here to speak to his budget request and answer any questions from the commissioners.

[2:23:50] Good morning. We're still in the morning here. Good morning, everybody.

[2:23:53] Thanks for giving me a fat form here for a couple of minutes.

[2:23:57] I just want to thank everybody in my office, everything they've done.

[2:24:00] I want to thank Jake and the budget crew over there.

[2:24:03] Now, they didn't give me everything that I've asked for this time.

[2:24:08] In fact, they're not including, and I'm fine with it, just so you know,

[2:24:13] they're not including the one additional attorney, the addition of things,

[2:24:20] if the circuit court or the district court gets another judge,

[2:24:24] that's really not on the table. That doesn't look like it's one to happen.

[2:24:27] So, we just put that out there just to make sure that if that does happen,

[2:24:31] And remember, state's attorney's manning really is based on how many judges we have to

[2:24:39] service every day in the courthouse, so that's not really any offing.

[2:24:45] I would just point out this, we're really just asking for some additional operating costs.

[2:24:51] You know, we're not the sheriff's office, we're not the schools, we don't have a whole bunch

[2:24:54] of assets, we don't have buildings, we don't have cars, we don't have anything 96, 97 percent

[2:25:00] of our budget is salaries. We, of course, are having the same type of challenges that, I think,

[2:25:08] law enforcement is not a whole lot of people for whatever reason. I'll be prosecutors right now.

[2:25:15] And it's difficult to attract people. And you have to do that by paying them a competitive wage.

[2:25:22] So that's our biggest concern right now.

[2:25:28] But as in the past, the commissioners have helped us out.

[2:25:34] As I've said many, many times for commissioners,

[2:25:37] this board and your predecessors have always seen the need for

[2:25:42] state attorney's office to be properly manned and funded

[2:25:44] because you can't have public safety law enforcement

[2:25:49] without prosecutors.

[2:25:50] And if we aren't able to do our job, then it really doesn't matter what the police do.

[2:25:55] So I thank you for that, here to answer any questions if you have any.

[2:26:05] Thank you, Mr. Covington.

[2:26:06] I appreciate it.

[2:26:08] Yes, sir.

[2:26:09] Moving on to our next budget is the health department, which is a county proposed budget of just

[2:26:15] over $4 million, $4 million, $18,300, which is a $92,300 increase.

[2:26:20] This budget fully funds are required funding.

[2:26:24] The county is tied to a, all counties are tied to this core funding requirement that's associated with the state.

[2:26:32] And this budget fully funds that requirement of the total requirement is $4,510,202.

[2:26:40] And we are funding that through some creative funding sources.

[2:26:44] One, we're going to continue to use our upper funds to support their community health outreach team.

[2:26:49] In addition, we have ill boys' settlement funds that we are using to support their peer specialist positions as well as this community health outreach team wants to offer funds that are exhausted.

[2:27:01] And then the remaining funds that were will become from our general fund of $3,861,300, which is an increase over last year's adopted budget.

[2:27:11] And in the addition, this budget continues to provide a stipend for one of their employees.

[2:27:14] So we do have Dr. Abney here who's been very patient and waiting for this opportunity.

[2:27:20] So she's here to speak to her budget request and answer any commission or questions.

[2:27:26] I got to turn it to green.

[2:27:28] Good morning commissioners.

[2:27:29] Thank you so much for having me here.

[2:27:31] I just want to thank you for letting us do the things that health departments do, which

[2:27:36] is manage outbreaks and prevent them, decrease health disparities, prepare for and

[2:27:43] respond to public emergencies, recruit and retain staff, and to just in general improve

[2:27:48] the health of our citizens here in Charles County. Unless you have any questions, if you

[2:27:56] have any questions, I'm sorry, I'm here to answer them. I said that backwards.

[2:28:02] I just have one question. Yes, sir. With things that's going on health-wise from policies

[2:28:10] these to outbreaks, and what do you foresee the next budget cycle, the biggest issue,

[2:28:19] I know you focus on so much, but what is going to be the biggest issue that you and

[2:28:23] your team will be focusing on for with respect to preventive health?

[2:28:30] So that's a two-fold question.

[2:28:33] The biggest preventive health thing, I think, is things like obesity and heart disease,

[2:28:38] things that we've been working on for a long time.

[2:28:41] As far as things like outbreaks, it's anybody's guess.

[2:28:46] What the next big outbreak is going to be.

[2:28:47] Hopefully there won't be one for quite some time.

[2:28:51] Do you foresee, and I know you don't have a crystal ball,

[2:28:54] but based on what you're hearing from your colleagues

[2:28:57] and looking at past data and know how things happen.

[2:29:03] Not to scare people, but do you see a possibility

[2:29:07] of a huge problem with respect to the measles outbreak that's occurring across the country.

[2:29:12] So, I don't think there's going to be a huge, you know, across the country outbreak.

[2:29:20] And as you said, I don't have a crystal ball. However, we are a lucky country in that.

[2:29:26] Up until recently, we're still very well measles vaccinated. But there are, as we know,

[2:29:32] pockets of places where people have chosen not to get vaccines in general but especially

[2:29:37] the measles vaccine.

[2:29:39] And there's the likelihood that in those pockets, like in Western Texas and in Mexico where

[2:29:44] a lot of this started, that we may see outbreaks that are larger than one or two people.

[2:29:52] If things continue, as there are where people choose not to vaccinate, or people listen

[2:29:57] and to information that

[2:30:00] That is not based in science about measles causing autism or measles doing other things to you, then we're at risk for decreasing our amount of measles vaccination coverage. And then at that point, we'll be at risk for more outbreaks. But hopefully the experience that we've been going through with what's been going on in our country right now will make people think twice and make them listen to their pediatricians and other healthcare providers and get vaccinated for measles, or get their children vaccinated.

[2:30:31] Thank you so much, Dr. Avney, thank you, I do have a question, thank you so much for your outreach.

[2:30:38] So as far as preventative, there are major things that are going on and particularly revolving around mental health.

[2:30:51] How is that program doing?

[2:30:55] Were you able to fully staff?

[2:30:57] Are you, the funding support is sufficient for those folks

[2:31:03] that are, that you're, that you're involved

[2:31:05] with the mental health.

[2:31:06] So you're asking about my behavioral program?

[2:31:08] Behavioral health program.

[2:31:10] The funding is very good and I appreciate all the funding

[2:31:13] you guys have given me, but it is still very hard

[2:31:15] to recruit for mental health people.

[2:31:17] Our behavioral health providers, both on the somatic side

[2:31:20] and the substance use side, but we are doing our best and we are still seeing patients

[2:31:26] and our peers which have also so gracefully, gracefully helped us with our doing an excellent

[2:31:32] job in the community.

[2:31:34] Since we're talking about that, we also have our hope team and our new Serena Services Program

[2:31:39] which is going well.

[2:31:41] Very good.

[2:31:42] But thank you.

[2:31:42] Thank you so much.

[2:31:45] Thank you, Commissioner.

[2:31:46] Thank you, Dr. Ermin.

[2:31:47] And again, thank you for supporting us.

[2:31:49] I appreciate it.

[2:31:51] The next budget page would be patient, there's Sam and Carol, and that's the circuit court budget that Taney will be reviewing.

[2:31:59] So the circuit court proposed budget is $2,840,664 is a 6.1% increase.

[2:32:06] Included in their budget is funding to support the full-time, full-year impact of the FY25 approved position, funding for replacement furniture and new workstations.

[2:32:15] There's also an increase in contract services for the annual support of the KIAX machines.

[2:32:21] And included in their budget is fund balance reserves of $42,000 and

[2:32:25] if you exclude that, there'll be a 4.7% increase.

[2:32:28] The CZRCA court did have some requests that are not being proposed.

[2:32:31] And there are several positions.

[2:32:33] As a court social worker, a court statistics analyst,

[2:32:37] a circuit court case manager, a judicial admin assistant which is related to the six judge,

[2:32:42] a copy of which is also related to the six judge and furniture and additional

[2:32:47] reference materials. And those two were related to the six judge.

[2:32:52] Commissioners, we do have just west available on teams.

[2:32:55] I'd be happy to answer your questions as well.

[2:32:58] This gives an opportunity to come to the commissioners.

[2:33:01] What's in their requested budget?

[2:33:04] Good morning, everyone.

[2:33:06] Good morning. Yes, hear me.

[2:33:09] Very good. Good to see you all.

[2:33:10] So, I will be very brief, let me just say that one, I'd like to think Mr. Dyer and

[2:33:17] the staff at the county, obviously Ms. Hall, for working with us.

[2:33:22] We understood the budget environment this year, and we understood some of the constraints.

[2:33:27] I just want to start with the two positions or one position that we're not going to get

[2:33:32] and understand that positions are hard to come by, but it is a goal of ours to hire a social

[2:33:38] worker on staff. We envision the social worker as someone who would be heavily involved

[2:33:45] with criminal programs and family cases. It's sort of been our connection between a courthouse

[2:33:51] and services. Dr. Abney, I call it the tail end of what she was talking about. Some discussion

[2:33:58] on mental health and behavioral health, and that is a big issue in the judiciary. It's a big issue

[2:34:03] in the every courtroom, really, every courtroom every day.

[2:34:09] And some of you may know there's the judiciary's putting on response

[2:34:11] during a statewide summit on behavioral health, and I will see many of the people

[2:34:15] who are appearing here today at that seminar, which is in late May.

[2:34:23] I just want to give you guys a couple of statistics, and our Family Law Health Center

[2:34:27] for 2024. This is calendar year. We help 2,407 people, a little bit more. That's for

[2:34:35] our family law, a little bit more for our civil health center, which was 2,554 people.

[2:34:41] On top of that, you have our law library, which many patrons come in. These are all citizens.

[2:34:46] They take advantage of our services free of charge. Once that that I've never given you, I don't think,

[2:34:54] But for 2024, there were 110, just under 110,000 security screenings, which is an 8% increase

[2:35:03] from the year before, of those security screenings, 450 dangerous items were confiscated.

[2:35:10] Courthouse security and certainly the safety of the citizens who walk through the courthouse

[2:35:16] who conduct business at the courthouse, priority one, in terms of case filings in 2024,

[2:35:21] 8,637 case filings, that is up, that doesn't count the cases that are already open, or cases that are already in inventory.

[2:35:30] Something of direct concern to citizens here would be in 2024 again, this is calendar year.

[2:35:37] We called in, I mean, into the building, 6,454 jurors, and we summons 21,591 jurors.

[2:35:47] We do anticipate that this calendar year, the number of jurors, summons, will increase for multiple reasons.

[2:35:57] But I will spare you those details because some of those things are still in flux.

[2:36:01] Again, we appreciate all of the help, all of the assistance, and we understand the budget as Mr.

[2:36:08] Dyer has laid it out, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[2:36:14] Thank you.

[2:36:17] Thank you, Jez-Wes.

[2:36:19] Thank you, sir.

[2:36:21] Oh, Commissioner Collins, yes. Since I heard your voice, I would be remiss to say this is something

[2:36:29] you and I have talked about before and it was a pledge I gave to you is we have continued to pursue

[2:36:38] through this state and with our clerk's office increased interpreters support. The amount of cases

[2:36:47] is involving interpreters, quite honestly, in the circuit court and in the district court

[2:36:53] continues to increase. Thankfully, some of the things helping us are key asks, speaks

[2:36:59] more than one language and communicates, and we see it all the time, communicates with

[2:37:04] people in multiple languages. So that is a high priority for us. That is just not something

[2:37:09] the county funds, but since I heard your voice, I did not want you to think. I know it's

[2:37:13] It's important to you, I did not want you to think that we have given up on that, forgotten about it, or that it's not a priority.

[2:37:21] Thank you, sir.

[2:37:23] Thank you, sir.

[2:37:27] Next commissioners will be page 38, which is the Board of Elections.

[2:37:34] The election board, 2026 proposed budget is $3,389,000, that's a 2.1 increase over the 2025 adopted budget.

[2:37:46] This budget includes funding to support the election board for the upcoming election year.

[2:37:52] And board of election employees are state employees, but they are funded by the county.

[2:37:57] Mr. Kusin was not able to attend.

[2:37:59] She had a prior commitment up and up in Baltimore, but she wanted to thank the commissioners for

[2:38:04] considering her budget requests and to thank them for all your support over the years.

[2:38:11] On page 39, Carol is the Department of Social Services?

[2:38:14] The

[2:38:17] Department of Social Services budget for 2026, the proposed budget is $324,500, and that is flat from the 2025 adopted budget.

[2:38:29] And this fully refunds their requested budget.

[2:38:33] With us today, who's also been patiently waiting for this opportunity is Miss Anders and Mr. Butler to speak to the budget request for social services and answer any questions that the commissioners may have.

[2:38:44] Good

[2:38:48] morning. On behalf of the Department of Human Services, Charles County Department

[2:38:52] of Social Services sincerely appreciates the partnership of the Board of County Commissioners

[2:38:56] as well as Charles County Government staff, Mr. Dyer and team for all budget consideration

[2:39:02] this year. This funding allows us to employ five staff who support the operations of our

[2:39:08] DSS ranging from administrative to case management services. It also allows us to serve customers

[2:39:13] who are experiencing critical resource needs such as utility cutoff,

[2:39:18] eviction prevention, burrowless assistance, medical needs, and homeless

[2:39:23] assistance, etc. But it also supports our board activities. We thank you very

[2:39:28] much for the opportunity to receive this funding.

[2:39:36] Well she actually covered

[2:39:37] everything that I was wondering. So if there are any questions, we'll be able to

[2:39:42] answer them. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And last but not least

[2:39:48] This is our last budget summary for the commissioners.

[2:39:51] Is the Charles County Gers Trust, who has also been very patiently waiting inside in the room.

[2:39:56] But this budget for next year is a total budget of $1 million, $26,600.

[2:40:02] You see a decline there, but that's because there was one time funds provided to the chair over trust during FY25 budget adoption.

[2:40:10] What this budget does is it provides 217,300 tours of operating costs.

[2:40:14] It provides 809,300 tours or non-profit grants from the general fund.

[2:40:20] In addition, you might recall back in March, we came to the commissioners about utilizing

[2:40:25] our special revenue fund that we received from Cannabis Tax Revenue.

[2:40:29] We were proposing to give 400,000 out of that to support another non-profit award program

[2:40:37] that has to be meets certain criteria defined by the state legislation as well as additional

[2:40:43] $11,000 to support their administrative cost of

[2:40:47] administrating that program.

[2:40:49] But we did receive so in total, based on the nonprofit grant awards,

[2:40:53] they would be receiving $1.2 million, which in total is about 200,000 more than what they got last year.

[2:40:59] So we are providing more to the charitable trust.

[2:41:04] But in total, they did ask a request of $1.5 million in funding for grants.

[2:41:10] So we're still less than what they requested,

[2:41:13] but we are able to provide them with additional funds.

[2:41:16] So with that, we do have them here to speak to the budget,

[2:41:19] and their needs, and answer any questions

[2:41:20] for the commissioners.

[2:41:22] Thank you, and Carol, we do have a quick presentation

[2:41:25] we'll roll through, but Jake kind of covered page two

[2:41:32] with the nonprofit grant award.

[2:41:36] So while she's bringing that up,

[2:41:37] this is the first time that we've come

[2:41:39] because of the pushed back date for presentation,

[2:41:43] this we're coming before you when we already have

[2:41:46] the FY26 grain applications in hand

[2:41:48] from the Charles County non-profit.

[2:41:50] So this year we have 66 grain applications

[2:41:53] from Charles County non-profits.

[2:41:55] That's the most we've received so far.

[2:41:59] And our total request for grants is about 2.5 million.

[2:42:04] So appreciative of the,

[2:42:06] I guess 1.2 and grant set will end up coming to, but it's still 1.2 million and grant requests that we're going to have to cut that we've received from organizations in the county and the kind of we enjoy sitting through.

[2:42:23] I know we're last but not least, but we connect with so many of the community partners who present before us school system college and a lot of those partners have nonprofit grant programs come before us.

[2:42:34] So we are providing non-profit grants to those organizations as well.

[2:42:39] That public school system really has a lot of non-profit supporting them, especially

[2:42:44] with the community schools and Title I schools.

[2:42:46] The increasing community schools has increased the non-profit request supporting Charles County

[2:42:51] Public Schools.

[2:42:55] It's just a quick overview of the charitable trust in what we do.

[2:42:59] We're here to support the over 500 non-profits that operate in Charles County.

[2:43:03] There work covers a broad spectrum of categories including health care, disabilities, the arts,

[2:43:09] youth and education, the environment, law and human services and more.

[2:43:13] Our mission is to improve the quality of life for Charles County residents through our

[2:43:18] diverse and impartial grants program.

[2:43:21] For growth this past year, we have introduced our micro-grant program to support more smaller

[2:43:27] and newer nonprofits working in the county.

[2:43:29] We've also offered consistent classes to our nonprofit sector.

[2:43:35] We share grant opportunities for nonprofits to find additional outside funding every week.

[2:43:41] And we are working on building more donors.

[2:43:44] Our goals are to increase collaboration opportunities between nonprofits and maximize available funding

[2:43:49] for an increased impact in the county.

[2:43:53] So the terrible trust staff, we have two full time staff and one part time administrative

[2:43:58] of coordinator and we have a board of directors with 10 active board members who are really

[2:44:05] the pivotal points in our grant award decisions each year.

[2:44:11] We created on the next slide just I felt like the visual was helpful for you guys as you're

[2:44:17] reviewing how we disperse our grants year-to-year.

[2:44:22] This is for FY 25 you we've kind of created all of the categories of funding that we hit and

[2:44:28] And on the next slide, you'll see the graph

[2:44:35] with just requested funds in comparison to awarded funds.

[2:44:40] So last year we were able to find 54% of those requests.

[2:44:48] This is a breakdown for the last four years.

[2:44:51] You can see a little bit larger picture of the categories

[2:44:54] of ones we've been able to fund.

[2:44:56] And then the next bar graph is

[2:45:00] Over the last four years, we have received requests of almost $9 million and funded about $3.7 million, about 42% of requests over all of it being able to be funded. But we just felt the visual was kind of important for you guys to see that because we receive so many requests and available funding. There's a gap there. We do strive to kind of hit every area and really make sure those grant funds are dispersed across

[2:45:29] I'll say every sector in the non-profit.

[2:45:34] So this is just kind of continuing what we've said.

[2:45:38] Our micro grant last year was extremely successful.

[2:45:41] We've discussed before we have taken return grant funds to the trust

[2:45:44] and made that into a micro grant program where we're supporting those smaller

[2:45:49] or those newer start-up non-profit organizations.

[2:45:53] We've had several educational opportunities for non-profits this year

[2:45:57] and also with partnering with the College of Southern Maryland's Nonprofit Institute.

[2:46:03] We've garnered some additional funding for trust for operational support.

[2:46:08] We were able to get a grant that provided new technology for the trust that was covered through a different grant.

[2:46:15] And we continue to go after additional funding opportunities while also sharing funding opportunities with other nonprofits.

[2:46:22] So if we can't fully fund their requests, we're giving them the opportunity to find funding through other sources.

[2:46:29] But that is all for us if we have any questions.

[2:46:32] Happy to answer.

[2:46:35] Thank you.

[2:46:35] That was great.

[2:46:37] So we know that nonprofits are investments.

[2:46:40] Okay.

[2:46:40] So my question is, is that you guys are a nonprofit.

[2:46:44] The funding, the two raise.

[2:46:47] Does that go and how much do you know how much it is?

[2:46:50] and that goes along with the funding requests.

[2:46:55] I mean, kind of, how do you, do you make it different?

[2:46:59] Do you have separate pots or how do you do that?

[2:47:02] I would really like to say we're getting so much money.

[2:47:04] We've got extra pots, but currently it's going

[2:47:08] into the microgram program that we've started

[2:47:10] so that we can keep that program growing and going.

[2:47:14] And that was about $50,000 last year.

[2:47:17] We were able to do in the microgram.

[2:47:18] I'm in this year we're hoping to have about the same.

[2:47:22] If there is, you know, like last year, there was a program that the board really wanted

[2:47:27] to fund and we didn't have enough funding.

[2:47:29] We did pull from that kind of pot of money to be able to fully fund a program that they

[2:47:35] felt was important.

[2:47:36] So you're reinvesting?

[2:47:37] So that's free.

[2:47:38] It's 100% reinvested.

[2:47:39] Absolutely.

[2:47:40] We'd like to make sure anybody who donates knows that 100% and we're able to do that because

[2:47:45] because the, you know, you guys fully fund our operations, so we don't have to worry

[2:47:50] about that.

[2:47:51] And all of our efforts are going straight to the nonprofits.

[2:47:54] Thank you.

[2:47:55] Appreciate it.

[2:47:55] We thank you.

[2:47:56] Thank you for what you do.

[2:47:57] But the nonprofit community.

[2:47:59] I just a question on the presentation, is that something that we can have a copy of?

[2:48:05] Because I like the, I just like the way you broke down, you know, where the funding was

[2:48:11] going.

[2:48:11] Yeah.

[2:48:12] Of course, Carol, you have it.

[2:48:13] You can share any data.

[2:48:16] We love data and like to review it.

[2:48:18] So anything you'd like to see.

[2:48:19] Happy to share.

[2:48:20] And I guess that's the follow up to that is when you talk

[2:48:26] to the community, is the community expressing needs

[2:48:32] for this type of funding in specific areas.

[2:48:38] Would you say when you look at the way things break down,

[2:48:41] I mean, is that really an expression of where the community views the importance of non-profit funding?

[2:48:50] I think that's, we gauge the needs of the community based on the applications we receive.

[2:48:56] So, you know, like during COVID, you would see a lot more health and safety related.

[2:49:01] Jess, you can kind of back me up on this, but I think food and security, huge issue,

[2:49:06] we're seeing so many organizations applying for that and also support for youth in the schools,

[2:49:13] which that kind of goes hand in hand with food security as well. And then Health and Human Services

[2:49:19] continues to be our biggest request. So that's the trends that we see. The nonprofits know that

[2:49:27] there's not enough funding to fully support and that it's a tough budget year. So when we're in the

[2:49:36] collaborating, how are you partnering and how are you doing extra fundraising to support yourselves?

[2:49:40] And commissioners, I could just add, when we did our community survey,

[2:49:45] we learned some lessons here, we had the charitable trust under the other box.

[2:49:49] So there was a lot of responses under the other box that said provide more funding from the charitable trust.

[2:49:55] So what we're going to do for the art upcoming survey for next year is we'll give them their own little box.

[2:49:59] Like we would give the health department, the library, and so forth.

[2:50:02] But I will tell you that there was quite a big, like the other category, a lot of requests were to provide more funding towards the charitable trust.

[2:50:13] So the community was, the respondents was suggesting more funding good to them.

[2:50:19] I did have one question.

[2:50:20] I'm sorry, it's kind of budgetally, but I appreciate the way you all audit, I guess we call it,

[2:50:35] but

[2:50:35] where it's supposed to.

[2:50:37] The West is looking at me like make sure I stay on top of it.

[2:50:40] So, I'll stop right there.

[2:50:43] Yes, we take pride in making sure every dollar

[2:50:47] that we receive is spent as awarded.

[2:50:50] I like that structure.

[2:50:52] And I'm hoping that other agencies that give money

[2:50:54] to the nonprofits follow that same structure.

[2:50:57] Is that staying within that, Mr. Adams?

[2:51:01] With a period there, sure.

[2:51:03] Period.

[2:51:04] Thank you.

[2:51:05] I understand.

[2:51:06] Thank you.

[2:51:09] Thank you.

[2:51:10] Thank you.

[2:51:11] So, commissioners, that wraps up today's presentation.

[2:51:14] Thank you for sitting through this.

[2:51:15] This is definitely the longest one that always occurs during the budget process.

[2:51:19] Future steps tomorrow is we'll provide to the commissioners what the is in the operating

[2:51:25] budget for county departments, as well as we'll dive into our capital improvement program

[2:51:29] that's funded by the general fund, that's school projects, colleges Southern Maryland,

[2:51:32] as well as county departments.

[2:51:34] And in the week, we'll be sending individually commissioners their ad delete forms.

[2:51:39] Same process as always, we'll give you the ability to make additions or

[2:51:42] deletions to the budget once and we'll have those additions, subtractions reviewed before everyone on May 13th.

[2:51:51] But before May 13th, we do have the public hearing, which is next Wednesday on the budget.

[2:51:56] So please look forward to that and then we're still striving to adopt the budget on May 20th.

[2:52:02] Thank you.

[2:52:05] Thank you.

[2:52:06] Thank you.

[2:52:07] Thank you.

[2:52:07] Awesome job.

[2:52:08] Thank you, everyone.

[2:52:10] Missionaries, the next item on your agenda is to move into closed session.

[2:52:14] We need a motion to move into closed session where all or a portion of this session may be closed.

[2:52:20] First, pursuant to section 305 B1379 of the general provisions article of the annotated

[2:52:27] code of Maryland to discuss collective bargaining, receive legal updates on a non-compliance issue,

[2:52:35] receive an update on a potential property acquisition, and to review vacancies on boards

[2:52:40] and commissions.

[2:52:41] The reasons for moving into clothes is to keep legal advice, strategies, negotiations, and

[2:52:48] and personal information confidential.

[2:52:51] Is there a motion to move into closed session?

[2:52:54] So moved.

[2:52:54] Second.

[2:52:55] Moved and properly second, all in favor?

[2:52:58] Aye.

[2:52:59] Opposed?

[2:53:00] The aye's have it.

[2:53:01] Thank you, commissioners.

[2:53:03] Commissioners, following closed session,

[2:53:05] you'll return to open session at-

Board of County Commissioners: April 29, 2025 - Morning Session

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